MEZTISOUL

 

Half hour chill-house mix from Central (CA) Valley's MEZTISOUL. Bump under heat during the Season Of The Disappearing Sun if you'd like to have the same listening experience I had.....and it was a sensational listening experience. 

PRESCRIPTION PART 1

JT WHITFIELD

 

The Chondritic Sound label was responsible for some of my favorite discoveries of the 2010s and while their releases have leaned more on the digital format/s for the last few years, I still keep a keen eye (and ear) on their output. If I didn't keep a keen eye (and ear), I might miss releases like like 2019's Complacent from Austin freak JT WHITFIELD. Dark and deliberate distortion tinged ambient/techno sounds for the future, sounds that sound as if they are a reminder from a distant (and tortured) past...just letting you know we'll (all) be back.

COMPLACENT

ORAL HEX

 

The Wet Cassettes juggernaut is unstoppable. I diverted my eyes for what seems like just a few months and apparently I am more than thirty releases behind. Instead of beating myself up over missing out, I have been listening to the self titled ORAL HEX tape repeatedly over the last few days. Techno-tinged sex noise created by unknown animals, this release from 2021 is both a diversion from the noisy chaos the label used to grab my attention and a perfect addition to it....because there's nothing like something that doesn't sound like anything you've ever heard. Now...I have some catching up to do.

ORAL HEX

HIEROGLYPHIC BEING

 

HIEROGLYPHIC BEING presented a solid ninety minutes of deranged acid house damage to start Reel Torque's series of focused mixes that has been kicking for over a decade. A dark and debaucherous journey through new beat, funk and industrial-tinged EDM that would have sucked me into the series from the start had I only been focused in that direction. As it is, the rest of the 30+ tapes in the series appear pretty hard to come by, but I'm in the market if anyone's holding. 

REEL TORQUE VOL.1

KIVIRANTA

 

Nothing sounds like KIVIRANTA. No one sounds like KIVIRANTA. Hell, even KIVIRANTA doesn't sound like KIVIRANTA, because they clearly do what the fuck ever they want. I shared 2018's Dolce Vita a few years ago and yammered about the modern-indie-by-way-of-primitive-post-punk vibes and now I'm trying to wrap my head around this masterpiece from 2020. Antipsykootti is a master class in confidence - the was KIVIRANTA execute dark and minimal synths and then casually morph into tracks that land somewhere between ESPLENDOR GEOMÉTRICO and Russian rap after flirting with techno for a couple of tracks. "Kipa Ja Nautinto" is the star, a hard, drum machine driven dance floor punk smasher that stares straight in the face of most of the more subdued material on Antipsykootti, but it makes the whole release feel more cohesive at the same time....until the title track closes things down and reminds you that KIVIRANTA doesn not, in fact, sound like KIVIRANTA. 

ANTIPSYKOOTTI

LAVENDER

Gloriously minimal proto-space age techno from an SF artist who quietly dropped three quiet tapes in the mid-teens that left me...wanting. Early VOLTAIRE vibes mingling with modern interpretations of primitive house...LAVENDER are (were) a journey inward in the best possible way. 

HORIZONS BENEATH THE SURFACE

I.B.M.

 

Pararhythmic sex obsessed acid drenched acid EBM from Chicago's I.B.M., a release that opens with the deliciously distorted title track "Eat My Fuck" and then drags the listener through an hour of dirty trance inducing glory. Eat My Fuck feels filthy, Eat My Fuck feels magical...Eat My Fuck fits perfectly. The only question is: Are you ready?

EAT MY FUCK

MAGNETIZER

 

Another sonic escape from MAGNETIZER. The combination of beats and blips hits just right, and even though these sounds were made for the night, it's exactly what I needed this morning. Exactly what I need this morning. There's more, or there's this...

ABYSSIAN

CYANIDE TOOTH

 

The first side of this tape is a mind fuck - a sonic melting pot that hits like TG intercepting desperate battle communiques from another reality. A collection of constructions that culminates with the brutal repetition of "Press The Mesh Techno Animus" before "Shadow Enforcers" closes the side with the exact opposite of a come down. But it's the 25+ minute title composition on the flip that solidifies Midnight Climax Operation as a journey through other worldly realms of sonic power. A soundtrack to a disorienting existence. A(nother) mind fuck. A collage that paints a picture far darker than any of its individual components. CYANIDE TOOTH conjured a...a masterpiece. 

MIDNIGHT CLIMAX OPERATION

HRTL

 

A relatively recent and completely random discovery. Mesmerizingly minimal Czech techno (and if you coin the term Czechno you'll never have to work again) from HRTL aka Leoš Hort. The sounds feel so incredibly meticulous and intentional with no wasted beats or blips or whirrs and the result feels...realized. Recommended listening for those in need of completion. 

HYDROXID

ZAD KOKAR

A mind bending no-fi sonic journey through Space and France, ZAD KOKAR pushes the limits of sound perception on Moon & Earth Collapsed On The Day (4,46 Billions Years Ago) and I can't get enough. Maybe you call this experimental punk? Maybe it's just what happens when a creative mind is allowed to create unencumbered? Damaged drum machine techno beats form the foundation for repetitive future punk deconstructions, and then ZAD KOKAR drops a surprise in your lap (the brilliant "Warm Leatherette" cover, for example - a treat for everyone (like me) who didn't think they ever needed to hear another "Warm Leatherette" cover). MILK CULT meets LAIBACH in the twenty second century...but from France. 

 MOON & EARTH COLLAPSED ON THIS DAY (4,46 BILLIONS YEARS AGO)

 

PANTANO

I keep thinking this one is going to explode, but a year after I received this tape from Rafa, still no one is talking about PANTANO...maybe now they will start? Killer, raw, hard driving dark synth punk from the depths of Ciudad de México, five doses of pure primitive electronic bliss. The kind of tape that makes me ask no one in particular: What else is there? In this moment, the answer is simple: Nada. So we dance.

SUEÑO ALTERADO

RAZGRAAD

 

The Water Towers listens like the come down from the most demented high. An ambient chill zone exercise with faint hints of Hi-NRG dance synths and an undercurrent of minimal synth beats sometimes only audible if you take the time to listen through the primary sounds. Italy's RAZGRAAD skirt the edges of what is more of less standard downtempo fare, but they (he) do (does) so by merely dipping their (his) feet in the water to let you know that its comfortable and relaxing before taking your hand and pulling you into the mist. Calmly disorienting...elements of heavier synths and industrial sounds treated and compressed and repurposed (or reimagined) for presentation as a part of an altogether new (or at least different) creation. The entire tape exists as a thing outside of itself, and listening intently offers you the same experience....it's not a bad place to visit. 

THE WATER TOWER

ZWEI KREISE

 

Parisian minimal techno flavored by ambient passages and a foundation in the monotony of break beat repetition. "Background music" sounds like a dig, but that is exactly how I hear 2017's Silvarum/Rvlen, a recording that takes you to another places while staying with you wherever you are. A recording that is ultimately pleased if you listen with any consciousness at your disposal. 

SILVARUM/RVLEN

Physical and digital copies from Chicago's Jacktone. 

S. OLBRICHT

Abstract and disorienting sounds from Budapest's Stephan Olbricht. Deutsch Amerikanische Tragödie practically drags the listener through a forty-plus minute journey filled with dark dancefloor damage and planetary electronic ambiance....subtle and deliberate, the cuts are at once engaging and distant. I listen to this and I want to get into the why and the how, but it feels impossible. And perhaps that's why it grabs me now. "Foragrafia" grab you and, with just four notes, will bring you to your knees. 

DEUTSCH AMERICANISCHE TRAGÖDIE

If you don't already know (and you should), there's a lot more where this came from...

HARSH R

I'm going to be short here - this shit is just really really good. Washington state proto-industrial in the vein of the mid '80s Wax Tax! family tree. Two dark distorted dancefloor slogs, a one track jaunt into brighter synths with a brilliant VENOM cover, and then HARSH R drop a 7+ minute Infinite Beat meets ItaliDisco remix of the vicious opener "Dog People." I realize that most of us just listen to different versions and iterations of the same sounds over and over again, it's an unfortunate but necessary constraint of most of the subgenres covered in these chronicles. But if you wander through the tombs of sameness with open eyes, you may uncover something that brings those ghosts back to life. 

HARSH R

LUOMO

I'm pretty sure that Mikko from HERO DISHONEST brought this along for their 2004 US tour (the origins of which have probably been covered in these pages previously and are rooted in good natured shit talking that grew into a long lasting friendship). Some tracks from LUOMO's 2003 The Present Lover full length with a killer hi-NRG road mix. I had never heard of LUOMO before this cassette (honestly, aside from this cassette I still haven't) but the combination of a well crafted tape and good memories from a good has led me to keep this re-purposed SKC-LX around for 15+ years now. Not that most readers here will be hitting any kinds of roads any time soon...but the memories are still there, the desire is still there, and the jams are still here. This reminds me, I need to respond to Jussi's email...

LMO + Road Mix

ANDERS ILAR

Look, I'm not going to tell you how to feel. For me? In my world? Things feel pretty damn weird. And almost completely out of my control. So perhaps I hold onto that helplessness, and take comfort where I can find it. Sometimes that comfort comes in the form of screaming riffs and maniacal drums struggling to keep it together, and sometimes it just helps to chill. 

VIDARE

Further is a collection of recordings spanning 2000-2010, one hour of minimal ambient techno from Swedish composer Anders Ilar. Extremely chill. Just.....very very chill. More chill and less techno than some of his material, and more chill in general terms than the world at large. 

E.T.

Yes. While the underground/DIY world continues sinking deeper into synthesized pulsations and welcome a different '80s alternative genre into the fold. I like that the results keep getting weirder. Getting punker. Seizing ideal, shedding constriction and opening doors, sometimes these artists find themselves in a place that's very fucking similar to the people who gave me teenaged solace before the world of punk and DIY hardcore was fully in focus.....simply put, I welcome bands like E.T., and if these are the sounds that will make the basement walls shake moving forward then I welcome the future. 

PHONE HOMO

One, Two, Three, Four

What do you want....more?

SIOBHAN

SIOBHAN has stopped by The Escape a few times already, but I think that 2014's Southgate is perhaps the best example of their murky psychedelic approach to primitive techno. It just sounds like you're high on all of the things, and it's SIOBHAN taking you on that trip. A trying document at times, as amateurish as it is brilliant, Southgate will be most rewarding half hour of your day. 

SOUTHGATE