2011 Favourites

A re-up of my best of 2011, with no major label 'product' stinking it up. I've just checked this list, and all the albums I've selected these tracks from are high quality, so do yourself a favour and pick one up. I've tried to pick a representative track in each case, but there's always Youtube if you want to explore these artists further.
Tracklist:

D Charles Speer - Markos's Cave (Arghiledes )
Deerhoof - Must Fight Current (Deerhoof vs. Evil)
The Haxan Cloak - The Fall (The Haxan Cloak)
Six Organs of Admittance - Light of the Light (Asleep on the Floodplain)
Byetone - Black Peace (Symeta)
Grails - Future Primitive (Deep Politics)
Ugandan Methods - Untitled (Mat Oput 1/2 Vinyl)
Le Révélateur - Age Maze (Fictions)
Locrian - The Crystal World (The Crystal World)
Mini Mansions - Kiddie Hypnogogia (Mini Mansions)
Oneida - Pre-Human (Absolute II)
Anima Morte - Devoid of a Soul (Face the Sea of Darkness)
Circle - Saarnaaja (Infektio)
Surgeon - Transparent Radiation (Breaking The Frame)
Seefeel - Sway (Seefeel)
Alexander Tucker - His Arm Has Grown Long (Dorwytch)
Evan Caminiti     - heavy whisper (When California Falls Into The Sea)
Bill Callahan - Baby's Breath (Apocalypse)
Kronos Quartet, Kimmo Pohjonen & Samuli Kosminen - Uniko: III. Sarma (Uniko)
Mind Over Mirrors - Round, Around (The Voice Rolling)
Master Musicians Of Bukkake - Prophecy Of The White Camel / Namoutarre (Totem Three)
The Fear Ratio - Ax (Light Box)

Currently posted on Depositfiles
Mirror:
Mediafire part 1
Mediafire part 2


I'll try and get this up on a mirror, soon, along with some previous years' best ofs.

Various - Acid Techno

January's a bit shit, isn't it? Here's some acid techno - it never fails to cheer me up. This selection runs from 1988: Bam Bam's sinister and brilliant 'Where's Your Child?' through to about 10 years later. I had to include a couple of Hardfloor numbers, obviously, since they are the absolute masters of the form. There's also a couple of Richie Hawtin efforts - an early, headfuck one in 'Substance Abuse', and the relentless acid epic of his System 7 remix. Some of my favourites are the slightly less well known tracks that rocked my socks back in the day - Gamma Loop, Hexagone and Cyan are particular favourites, and my vinyl copies are suitably crackly. (The mp3 of Cyan unfortunately has a skip). Actually, they are all favourites - the list could have been massive, but these are just the ones I've collected on mp3 over the years. For some reason I feel I should point out that I have all of them on vinyl except the Edge Of Motion one, which I've never got around to buying.
If you have trouble collating these tracks in your player, album artist is 'white dot acid techno'.
I hope these tunes soundtrack a spannered evening for someone, somewhere.
1 - FUSE - Substance Abuse (Warp)
2 - Gamma Loop - 4X3 (Hyper Hype)
3 - Robert Armani - Circus Bells Hardfloor Remix (Djax)
4 - Hexagone - Burning Trash Floor (Djax)
5 - Alaska - The Thing (F Comm)
6 - Hardfloor - Confuss (Harthouse)
7 - Bam Bam - Where's Your Child? (Tresor)
8 - Air Liquide - Psy 9 (Blue)
9 - System 7 - Alpha Wave Plastikman Remix (Butterfly)
10 - Magenta - Boost (Experimental)
11 - Cyan - Peacekeeper (Experimental)
12 - Barbarella - My Name Is Barbarella/The Spaceship (Harthouse)
13 - Edge Of Motion - Set Up 707 (Djax)

Mediafire

Etienne Jaumet - Night Music

This superb album came out in late 2009. Etienne Jaumet is also in synth duo Zombie Zombie, who are not ashamed to reveal their influences - releasing an EP of their interpretations John Carpenter music. Whilst the influence of John Carpenter can be clearly heard on Night Music, the influence of Carl Craig takes the sound away from the more retro synth-fest of ZZ, into a more techno influenced direction. Craig is credited: 'Mix directed and imagined by Carl Craig', so it's not clear exactly what he does, but the grooves are allowed to run here, opening up into spacious vistas. First track 'For Falling Asleep' is a 20-minute epic masterpiece, driven by an arpeggiating synth, and simple kick drum. The track is pulled into the stratosphere with restrained duelling saxophones lines with heavy delay, and some trippy vintage synth noises. Like most of my favourite synth based music, it looks both forward and backward in time, with a futuristic ambience perfectly suited to driving around ultra modern cities at 3am. Although this is clearly the best track, every track on here is brilliant. The fat analogue lines and simple, classic drum machine grooves are always perfectly embellished with great melodies, and lush, deep ambience. On 'Through The Strata', what sounds like a hurdy-gurdy adds harmonic richness - hurdy gurdy and saxophone are not instruments I would generally associate with this kind of music, but they are inspired choices. The saxes return on the beatless last track 'At The Crack Of Dawn' - a reprise of the first track, which rounds out this hypnotic, resonant LP. Utterly brilliant: this was probably my album of 2009. Also, it makes a good companion piece to the Sinoia Caves album.

Versatile records asked me to delete the link. I'm going to leave the post up anyway, because I wholeheartedly endorse this brilliant album. I bought mine on vinyl from Juno, but they don't seem to have it any more. You can get it here or here in the US.

Youtube clip of 'For Falling Asleep'.

Air Liquide - Neue Frankfurter Elektronik Schule

A classic for Christmas. From 1992 this is archetypal Cologne business - deeply atmospheric and trippy. It's all one track, so you get samples of UFO spotters over ultra deep and spaced synth washes and bleepy noises. These blend into speedy acid trance-outs, with pattering drums and squiggling 303s. Swathes of panned static, radio noise and samples are the backdrop. It's a formula I love, and an album I love.

Mediafire

Khan & Walker - Radiowaves

I haven't posted anything involving Khan for a while, so here's another excellent album beamed down from the acid bleeposphere. There's super-minimal packaging on this one - they usually tell you what kit they have used to make their records, but I'm pretty sure it's the same equipment they were using on all their other releases around 1995 when this one came out. Actually, my album cover is different to this one, but I can't seem to find a decent image of it. This has the usual crispyRoland percussion pattering away; phased and dazed synths sweep across the background while acid lines, bass and the odd syncopated mid range line bubble and swing in the centre of your headphones. Throw in the odd bit of speech sample, some high wispy frequencies, twiddle the knobs a bit, and there you have it - a classic snapshot of the Cologne sound which is glorious to my ears: deep, spacy and trippy. The beats are all fairly light - no pounding 808s, here - ranging from slow breakbeat rockers, to jittery electro, and 5am trance-out on the splendid and epic 'Radiowaves 4'.

Mediafire

White Dot Electronica 2

Another wad of superb electronica for you. Slightly more upbeat, lush and tuneful this time, epitomised by the glorious opener by Four Tet vs. Pole. This also contains what I think could be the finest piece of electronica ever: Autechre's remix of Beaumont Hannant. I'm sure there are proponents of Carl Craig's 'At Les', too - a total classic. The other Autechre remix is completely awesome, too, and the Balil track is one I never tire of. Two hours of niceness: hopefully there will be some revelatory discoveries within.
Tracklisting:
1 - Four Tet vs. Pole - Cload (V/A - Osmosis Leaf Sampler)
2 - Apparat - Limelight (Walls)
3 - As One - Meridian Max 404 remix (Reflections On Reflections)
4 - Softballet - Jail Of Freedom Autechre remix (Softballetforms)
5 - Bersarin Quartet - Mehr Als Alles Andere (Bersarin Quartet)
6 - Mouse On Mars -Owai (Instrumentals)
7 - Dabrye - No Child Of God (Instrumentals)
8 - Kettel - Any Waken Sly Bonda (Whisper Me Wishes)
9 - Balil - Parasight (V/A-Artificial Intelligence 2)
10 - Kiyoshi Izumi - Bedroom Glow (Effect Rainbow 12")
11 - LA Synthesis - Agoraphobia (Matrix Surfer)
12 - Nonplace Urban Field - Roll Over Ehrenfield (V/A-Deutsche Funk)
13 - Boy Robot - Magic Toys For Girls & Boys (Rotten Cocktails)
14 - Principles Of Geometry - Golem (Lazare)
15 - Vulva - Kellog's Corn Circles (From The Cockpit)
16 - Cristian Vogel - The Time Lock (Station 54)
17 - Carl Craig - At Les (V/A - In Order To Dance 5)
18 - 16B - Falling: Two Lone Swordsmen remix (Falling 12")
19 - Beaumont Hannant - Psi Onyx Autechre remix (Psi Onyx 12")

Mediafire

Byetone - Plastic Star

Byetone is a recording alias of Olaf Bender, one of the co-founders of the Raster-Noton label from Germany. I love a lot of the music on this label, which is normally a kind of icy, detached electronic minimalism; sometimes even distant and sterile (and often brilliant). This, on the other hand, is a bit of a beast. Right from the off it storms in with an electro kick drum and a glorious throbbing bass. This is driven along by minimal cymbals, and punctuated with stabs of distorted harmonic noise, before a triumphant droning melody is introduced and the track rises to a victorious peak. This demands to be played loud, and is the kind of tune that makes you raise your fist into the air.
There are four mixes on here, all excellent, none of which deviates greatly from the original, which is a good thing. Sleeparchive does a characteristically excellent job, shaping it into a more syncopated techno pounder. Fellow Raster-Noton luminary Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai) funks it up a bit, cutting and chopping with clipped beats and some of his trademark high pitched noise signals. And it's nice to see Dr Walker turn in an Air Liquide-style acid-hop version, adding some acoustic bass and swirling trippy synths in the classic mid 90s Air Liquide style.
Marvellous. After hearing this I had to buy it on vinyl.

Mediafire

Various - Temple Records NYC vol 1

More Germanic goodness from 1995. Despite that hippyish-looking cover this has nothing to do with trance, and comprises tracks by Khan, Walker and Jammin' Unit under various aliases. There are some nicely distorted monolithic robo-groovers in here, but the compilation is dominated by Khan rocking his 303 into oblivion on 'Blues', 'The Truckdriver' and the blistering acid of opener 'Praise The Lord' as the aptly named Madonna 303.
I went to the Temple Records shop in 2001, where I bought a couple of Khan 10"s. I wonder if it's still there.

Mediafire

White Dot Techno 2

Time for some more techno, I think. 9 more top tunes from back in the day - if you were clubbing a lot in the mid 90s you may well have heard all of these tracks played out, and I'm sure a few of them are still played regularly, particularly Dave Clarke's Red 2 and Red Planet's Stardancer. The latter was absolutely hammered in London clubs when it came out, and it took me a while to track down in the days before the internet, as usually I was too busy going mental to try and see what was revolving on the decks at the time.
As far as I am concerned, these tracks are all brilliant. From the house/techno crossover anthem of Planetary Assault System's Booster; the brain-mashing sound that permeates Teste's The Wipe to the face-punching aggro of Mark Bell's Hardfloor remix.
I think my favourite, though, would have to be possibly the least well known track. Secret Cinema's Jeroen Verheij turns in an epic remix of Yantra's 360. Driven along by a bashing snare breakbeat and razor sharp cymbals and percussion, before a subtle rasping bassline comes in, this track takes off into a weird spacy soundscape with alien synths echoing around. Strange and brilliant, as well as being a terrific techno stormer.
Bitrates vary as before, but it all sounds pretty good to me.
Tracklist:
1 - Dave Clarke - Wisdom To The Wise ['Red 2', Bush]
2 - Dave Angel - Bounce Back [R&S]
3 - The Martian - Stardancer [Red Planet, by Mad Mike Banks]
4 - Teste - The Wipe (5am Synaptic) [Plus 8]
5 - Planetary Assault Systems - Booster [Peacefrog, by Luke Slater]
6 - Yantra - 360 (Flutter Mix) [Music Man, remix by Jeroen Verheij]
7 - Laurent Garnier - Astral Dreams (Speaker Mix) [F Comm]
8 - Slam - Positive Education (2nd Morganistic Mix) [Soma, remix by Luke Slater]
9 - Hardfloor - Strikeout (Orbit Mix) [Harthouse, remix by Mark Bell]

Megaupload

White Dot Techno 1

Here are a few banging techno tunes, mostly from the mid/late 90s. These have come from a variety of sources, and the bit rate is variable - in one case as low as 128kbps. I thought about this after I'd compiled it, but really, it's banging techno, not Steely Dan. I have changed the album artist for all tracks to 'White Dot Techno 1' (there are more selections coming), so you can find them in itunes - some of the volume levels may need adjusting for consistency.
Tracklisting:
1-Aphrohead-In The Dark We Live (Dave Clarke's 313 Mix) Bush
2-Gaetano Parisio-19.99 A1 Drumcode
3-Grain-Untitled (4th EP A1) FatCat
4-Henrik B-Recollections A1 Drumcode
5-James Ruskin-Dilemma Tresor
6-Joey Beltram-Ballpark Tresor
7-Oliver Ho-Fusion Meta
8-Speedy J-Electric Deluxe Plus 8
9-Secret Cinema-Cartoon Clip no label

Later comps will be slightly different, but this one is heads down car chase/crash music, especially the Secret Cinema track, which is a beast.

Mediafire

Germ - Gone

1994 - a great year for techno and electronica saw the release of Germ's debut album on GPR. Although this is slightly primitive compared to weird masterpieces such as The Black Chair that Tim Wright would subsequently release, it easily matches his contemporaries, and is still sufficiently weird and freaky to be enjoyable 15 years later. The sounds palette is bleepy and squelchy, with incisive percussion; the kick drum often being a fairly hard techno one, as opposed to the more metallic, crunchy beats being used by a lot of electronica at the time. Co-engineered with John Dalby, it is obvious that there are a couple of studio whizz-kids at work: all the weirdest noises have been coaxed out of whatever keyboards or VSTs they had, and it’s really well edited and mixed. There is an otherworldly sense of menace to some of this stuff – it can be quite dark, and tracks like ‘Ssong’ prefigure Wright’s later, weirder creations, with it’s queasy and disembodied warbling. This abstraction is nicely balanced with some pretty rocking tracks – I used to mix with ‘Blib’ all the time, its mish-mash of brittle syncopated bleeps, wobbling bass and euphorically thrashing synths is very groovy indeed. Elsewhere there is a bit more harshness: closer ‘Gun(Gone)’ has some nasty panning action and dive bombing rave waves. The moody sonar electronica of ‘Sap’ heads almost to gabba speed as the beats are doubled up, and there are disturbing, almost industrial details throughout the album.
I think this streak of darkness, along with the very trippy sound palette, keeps this album still sounding pretty strong and fresh today.

Megaupload

C/Sphere & Mark Gage - Microset Morning

An excellent EP of trippy, far-out techno from 1993. Released on the excellent Telepathic label run by Fred Gianelli. I was going to rip and post Gianelli's own Fox Hunt, which is amazing, but this chap has already posted it on his brilliant blog.
Back to Microset Morning: I have always regarded this as a Mark Gage release. The man responsible for the awesome techno classic Gravitational Arc Of 10. It was only when I came to post this that I realised that it was by C/Sphere, aka Coleman Horn. However, the label states "Produced and edited in Vapourspace by Mark Gage", and this has his signature sounds all over it. Sci-fi bleeps and blips swoop around the mix, while a modulated mid range synth churns out weirdly un-syncopated arpeggios. The bassline is one of those bubbling, clustered, lumpy affairs that doesn't particularly accent the beat. It's similar to a lot of Robert Hood basslines, although in this case it builds up and peaks to quite euphoric and mind altering effect. In addition, the beats are relatively gentle, and this made it a post-club mixing favourite; although it can be quite a challenge if your brain is not all there. Basically there are three fairly similar versions of the same track. It definitely sounds like the machines were left to run, and a bit of editing was done later. The 11 minute 'Drift Com' has the greatest degree of arrangement, and has extra spangly noises to spin your brain out just that little bit more, but they are all great. In addition there is a short, beatless abstract oddity which is fairly nice.
nb #1 - I saw Mark Gage live at the Ministry back in the 90s - he was excellent.
nb #2 - Mr C introduced me to this record, when he was doing a show on Kiss back in the 90s. Many people may think of him as the clown out of The Shamen, but he was an excellent DJ. I'm sure I still have the tape somewhere - it was a great mix. And his label was superb.

Mediafire

Ken Ishii - Garden On The Palm

Debut 1993 album by prolific Japanese techno producer, released on the legendary Belgian label R&S (although this is ripped from the Japanese cd).
This is definitely techno of the abstract persuasion - the title track opens the album with some queasily wobbling bass and weird stabs over an offbeat rhythm; then a warbling computer whistle ushers in some very monged mid-range synths. Definitely one for adventurous DJs back in the day, although it does have a totally serviceable techno beat. I have no idea what the Japanese techno scene was like in 1993, but this album certainly has quite an alien sound to it: none of the snare rolls, bouncing bass lines or pummelling beats that were so common in UK and Euro techno (not that I dislike those things in the slightest). The next track 'Loop' is a superb spaced out synth exporation, with no kick drum, then 'Prodrome' brings back the weird-beard techno in terrific fashion. 'Nil' then ramps it up with the most banging kick drum on the album, with slightly 'Relief'-sounding percussion. The album displays class throughout, and is marvellously produced. Even a housy vocal snippet on 'Popgun' fits in with its odd backdrop: invoking tension and alienation rather than euphoria. I have very ambivalent feelings toward vocal samples in dance music, and could probably ramble about it for ages. Felix Da Housecat used them to really nasty effect on contemporary tracks like 'Pussn Meow' and 'Venom', but I digress. This is all about Ken Ishii and his intricately warped take on 90s techno.

Mediafire

Pump Panel - Ego Acid

Banging acid tune from 1994. Fantastic stuff: pounding kick drum, crashing cymbals, and lashings of 303. The 'Floatation Mix' on the B-side is only slightly more laid back, with a trancy arpeggio spacing it out, somewhat.
Also included is the Reconstruction Mix of New Order's Confusion, which is even more banging, pounding, and relentless, at over 10 minutes. The acid is even more full-on and brain mashing, while the vocodered vocal loops add a bit of depth. This beast is an all-time favourite of mine.

Mediafire

Gerhard Potuznik - Florida Optical EP

Superb EP released on Austria's Cheap records in 1994: a great year for all things techno. I played this a lot, so there are a few crackles on this vinyl rip. It begins with the swirling subterranean synths and fuzzy stabs of 'Shine', whose only rhythmic element is some hissing hi-hats. The kick drums appear on 'Make Up Doll', which is a minimal moody stomper. The B-side was what I played to death - particularly 'Gangway'. This is a pretty trippy affair, with strident, acidic moogy lines introducing the tracks, with some sweet, dubbed out stabs counterbalancing them. The percussion keeps building, a thick drone is introduced, and more heavily reverbed keys come in, creating a disorientating effect. Quite intense, and fades out a bit too early in my opinion. The ep is rounded off by a classy and rather lovely little number with elements of early 90s trance, and a bouncy prog-house bassline.

Mediafire

Sympletic - No Name

A post holiday post to get back into the swing of things. A limited 1994 release on the distinctive abstract techno label Ifach, run by Baby Ford. This was a single sided 12", by Mark Broom, who is (and was) a pretty wicked DJ in addition to his obvious production skills.
The one track is a twelve minute epic workout of deep, trippy and atmospheric techno: a masterpiece, I would say. Mr Broom works this shuffling groove into deep space with off kilter hi-hats, and a palpable hands-on feel of mixing desk manipulation. Wonderful.

Update: I've just been cleaning up my links, and discovered the wonderfully named Essex Rascals site, where you can keep up with Mark Broom's activities, along with Paul Mac, Ben Sims and Tony Anderson.

Mediafire
Megaupload

Underworld - Mmm...Skyscraper b-sides

From the original 1993 ep. I never managed to track down mp3s of these two versions of Mmm...Skyscraper, I Love You, so I've ripped them from the 12". They are more straighforward hard-edged prog house than the sprawling a side (which I haven't bothered including), but they are both fantastic. Great dancefloor cuts with all the Underworld hallmarks - the rolling, driving basslines, syncopated synths and layered percussion. The Jam Scraper mix has a real epic feel, with great use of strings, slide guitar, and a restrained but building acid line which was a bit of a rarity for Underworld.

1. Mmm...Skyscraper Telegraph 6.11.92 (7'08")
2. Mmm...Skyscraper Jam Scraper (9'11")

Download Mediafire
Megaupload

Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia - Maenad plus

Yes it's a cheesy name. PWOG were a Dutch collective operating at their peak in the early 90s. Text on the back of their records invited "those who wish to get the most out of their lives" to contact the Katharos Foundation, or De Tempel, which has the Psychick TV logo next to it. I'm not sure how much any of them had to do with the latter; maybe they were hoping for greater interrest and intrigue by virtue of association.
Whatever their personal politics or beliefs, they were creating some perfect music at this time. They were pretty good at ambience - there's some great stuff on the 'Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves' LP, and the Obsidian 12" was an encapsulation of the 'ambient techno' sound and concept. It's their dancefloor stuff that I keep going back to. This 12" in particular, although Exit 23 is pretty good. The influences of the Belgian Nu-Beat sound, that was popular in the mid 80s with bands like Front 242 is clear on this 12" - the shuffling beat that is instantly recognisable. But there was a lot more on top of that beat - PWOG were superb programmers of percussion, generally tending toward a tribal feel, most evident on 'Ov The Maenad', with its weird manic bagpipe effect. My favourite is the 'Beyond' version. Super deep, with trancey (circa 1992) synths, and great use of reverb to give this a driving feel. Awesome - perfectly encapsulating the feel of a dank club at 4am, with just a single laser and some dry ice.
Later on they managed to get Coil to do a remix for them - which not a lot of artists can boast - included here, as is their fabulous remix of Orbital's Lush - another minimal marathon, although I would be quite happy if it went on for another half an hour.
Tracklist
1. PWOG-Ov The Maenad
2. PWOG-The Beyond
3. PWOG-Kraak Rejammed (Coil remix)
4. Orbital-Lush 3-4 (Warrior Drift PWOG remix)

Download Mediafire
Megaupload

Two Lone Swordsmen - The Fifth Mission

This 1996 double album was a serious statement of intent from Andrew Weatherall and Keth Tenniswood. Forging a unique sound from oddball synth noises and some monged rhythm loops (the amazing 'Beacon Block'), this provided a wealth of listening pleasure for me when it came out. Veering from beautifully downbeat tracks like the sublime 'A Slow Drive West' to more intense, almost techno tracks like the cd only 'Backstairs Rattlers', via spannered electro and house, this is a classic collection.
It was also something of a surprise: Weatherall had been one of my favourite DJs for a few years - his Sabresonic club under the arches at London Bridge still remains one of my favourite clubbing experiences - and I was expecting something a bit more banging. Instead I got something that is far more enduring.

Download Mediafire
Megaupload

Akufen - Psychometry vol 3

I wasn't always convinced by all of Akufen's work. I found a lot of it clever or impressive, but it didn't move me. This EP totally hits the spot, however. He uses radio noise, severely chopped samples and assorted other elements to create his loops; and on this 12" these loops glide most pleasingly over the beats, usually as triplets, creating a nice swinging groove. Great editing skills are displayed, especially on my favourite track - B2 - which has some great backwards sounds. Unfortunately it is a total bitch to mix, as the beats are all over the place, but it's a superb track.

Download