Friday, December 30, 2011

December chart


Wow, didn't 2011 pass too fast? I simply can say that when looking back... well, I also can say 2011 has been an amazing musical year... I'm really happy because I've discovered a lot of new music and I feel like my mind is a bit more open after the last months.

I know I always say it's very hard to choose ten records per month but that's for real... This month has been even harder for me, I had 15-16 records on my list during the last week and today I felt like some kind of executioner when deleting some records from my list.

I start my December chart with BCR Boys' (Ninjatechno) release on Nachstrom Schallplatten. It looks like 2011 has been the most productive year for these boys. This reference, is a four tracker fully produced by BCR and plenty of bass techno on the so called Berlin way. I'm really feeling the A side.

Deeper and dubber comes Eduardo de la Calle with his 12th Ánalog Solutions (and not Analogue Germany as Juno states...). This record contains two delicate music pieces that I strongly recommend to check.

I love to find new names, this is my main purpose here, and I really find a cause for celebration when amazing and original music comes with it... Lakker is my new name of this month and Killerkill my new label to follow from now on... great one!

A bit more easy listening but full of dub comes Tacito with his last release. Soft and warm techno for those special moments on A side. And a G.Gigli remix with a playful track on B side, both still filled with well selected chords.

Antonio de Angelis, another new name for me, looks like another name to follow coming from Italy. He has a couple of releases in Safari and another two releases in Gynoid. One of them is the one I'm charting this month (Gynoid 07). A side starts with a remix by our favourite red beard, a pure club oriented techno track followed by the original track by de Angelis interpretation, which has nothing to envy from the previous one, I really don't know which one I'd choose if had I had to choose one of them. The original track  on B side is a bit darker and more mental than the two on A side, filled with some scary textures that really do the job in my opinion. Arnaud Le Texier's remix goes further with the interpretation of the track and I love how he took it to the other side, the dark one.

Well, Semantica did it again... This label never stops impressing me, this is pure music. Soulful, well done, original, varied but still following a thread. I'm talking now about the fourth release on their 5 year compilation. I really won't say much more about this release although it deserves a full entry on my blog. Please, let me just advise to listen to it and ask you to come back to me if you don't like it...

Another pretty young label, Abstract Acid, has released the 5th reference. As soon as I started listening to this one I thought: "Come to meeee!". This record has taken me to my very first techno years. Pure classic acid techno is what you can find here. But REAL acid techno, you know what I mean?

Dettmann has given the chance to Wincent Kunth this time and I'm pretty sure he's not dissapointing anyone... dark Berlin techno at it's best from a Swiss guy this time. I really like this record because every track is very different from the others but maintains the dark berlinesque atmosphere I said before. I really see this guy on OTON.

Delsin, my loved Delsin, has served another full of love and good music release. Morphosis has made a great job this year and Delsin has proved it. Arabic feeling and dark filling on the original track that fixes every dj set, even if it's not a techno one. Same for both re-definitions, coming from Marcel Dettmann. Both are really deep but the second one is, maybe, a bit more housey... I think this is one of those "love it, or hate it" records. I love it, I love it so much that I think my wife could feel a bit jealous... 

And the last one, is a new edition from one of my all time favourites. James Ruskin's "Work" (sorry, I didn't find another version for the original one youtube). Both tracks on this record are recorded live. I must admit I've charted this one because of "Work", but the other track is a very useful piece too in my opinion.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Aryz: graffiti and illustration


My weekly visit to Juxtapoz magazine has led me today to find the great talent of Aryz. He's an amazing muralist and illustrator that has gained worldwide attention along many years of originality and good work. When talking about his illustrations, graphit and photoshop are his main weapons. And when talking about graffiti, it seems the bigger the wall is the better and more expresive his art is... Last month, he had an individual exposition at Montana Gallery in Barcelona and Aesop Rock made a simple but great introduction of this exposition:

"On canvas, paper, or a wall you thought was too big to conquer, Aryz's creepy palette and wonderful characters seem to breathe just above the surfaces they sit on. The graceful-if-grotesque subjects and environments offer a strangely comforting space while keeping all the guts and teeth in the right place. Aryz is making some powerful work at an important time, and I look forward to watching what he does next." -Aesop Rock

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

New techno label: SCKT


Great news again. This time one of my best discoveries of this year, Markus Suckut, has announced he's starting a new label and, very good point for me, he'll be releasing only on vinyl.

The first reference comes with three pure class tracks produced by Mr. Suckut, and it looks like it'll be the usual: only tracks produced by Markus Suckut to express his most personal point of view when talking about techno music.  A perfect way to start this new adventure that makes me want to ask a lot of question about the plans he's got for the label. I just can't wait to put my hands on this record...

Check his presentation:

" FORMAT: 12" ONLY
 REDUCED TO THE ESSENTIAL AND WELL-TEXTURED. THAT’S WHAT MARKUS SUCKUT’S NEW LABEL SCKT IS CHARACTERIZED BEST.
KNOWN THROUGH RELEASES ON LABELS LIKE FIGURE SPC, THE PRODUCER WILL RELEASE ONLY HIS OWN PRODUCTIONS AND THEREBY PRESENT THE ROOT OF HIS OWN STYLE.
DESIGNED FOR THE ENDLESS FLOW, THE SUSTAINED STRUCTURE AND THE DREAMY-SPHERICAL MELODIES OF THE RELEASES CONTRAST EACH OTHER. THE LUSCIOUS SUBSTRUCTURE IS COMPLEMENTED BY MERCILESS HAUNTING BASSLINES. THIS MIXTURE DISTINGUISHES EACH TRACK AS FLAWLESS, MODERN TECHNO, WHOSE STEERFUL PRODUCTION IS PALPABLE IN EVERY SECOND.
ALL TRACKS WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY MARKUS SUCKUT.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DISTRIBUTED BY INTERGROOVE.

Release/catalogue number: SCKT01
Release date: Jan 25, 2011"
source: http://soundcloud.com/markussuckut/sckt01