TEA Podcast: Valanx

Arne Weinberg goes off the deep end and supplies TEA with an experimental podcast and frank interview, talking of his escape from dub techno, the Glaswegian life, and a forthcoming collaboration entitled Val_Ex.

It was 2009 that Arne Weinberg put and end to his AW-Recordings, a label the German established in 2004. In five years of productivity it released music for a select group of lesser known names, The Moderator, Kubra and Erell Ranson, while putting out records by established artists such as Convextion (Time Light Curve), Paul Mac, Deixis - label owner of Abstract Forms, and of course, Weinberg himself. 

A highlight of AW-Recordings' catalogue was the techno-electro tipped Viewpoints Chapter One from 2008, a various artist release that included music from XDB, Steven Tang's Obsolete Music Technology, Frustrated Funk owner Ovatow, Scottish techno mainstay Stephen Brown and Delsin three-piece Strand, whose track "Bloated" from 1996 is, put simply, immense.

After the label's final salute, the 2x12" Alpha & Omega LP by Weinberg, AW-Recordings was brought to a halt; poor sales cited as the primary reason for its closure. Moving from Germany to Glasgow, Scotland, where Weinberg resides today, the modular synth enthusiast continued making music, self-releasing a spate of digital Archives and other 12"s for the Technoir and aDepth Audio imprints, before boldly deciding to stop making music under his own name.

During this time he was also producing dub techno as Onmutu Mechanicks (sometimes with German producer Niko Tzoukmanis), primarily for Danish label Echocord, delivering a discography of four EPs and the one album Nocturne. As we discovered in our interview with Weinberg, he left the genre all together after being branded by some as a copycat producer, and subsequently, the Humvee-inspired Valanx project and diametric. label was born. 

This presented a new lease on life and music, and as Weinberg describes; a new freedom, all of which is now funnelled through diametric., which was launched by the electro of Keith Tucker's Optic Nerve project with the fittingly titled Reassimilation EP. Weinberg then debuted Valanx ten releases later with the superb debut album Xenolith, which he’s since been followed up by a further two albums. 

As Valanx, Arne Weinberg provides TEA with a podcast evasive of his dissatisfied past, and honest to his own tastes, while also speaking with us over email about 'the reality of the music business', dub techno snobs, a new project called Solemn Embrace, and teas tailored for the soft Scottish water.



Hi Arne, thanks for the mix. Could you explain how your Valanx alias differs from your other projects?

Valanx means total freedom for me. No rules, no structures I have to follow. It is the most personal project I have ever done because in the past I have always followed rules to a certain degree, such as dancefloor and club friendliness, tempos, sounds that will work for the listener. With Valanx, the only interesting thing for me is that I want to listen to it. Now that makes you probably think that I have not been honest in the past and that I made music with my old projects to please others. I never was a crowd pleaser, but you know, certain elements had to be there and I used to build my freedom in sound around those rules, such as the four-four bass drum rule that’s always annoyed me in most of techno. All the different styles in electronic music are very restricted in their appearance. Valanx lets me make my music with less of those restrictions.

You haven't released anything under your own name since 2011. Is Valanx your main project now?

Yes, it is. I will not release music as Arne Weinberg anymore. This is in the past - a past that I am proud of and a past that means a lot to me. It’s almost like a legacy. Some people don’t seem to understand the decision I have made, but, it was important for me to move on and to find a new freedom, as I felt imprisoned in the techno scene and in the constant struggle to please the DJs and all that. It has been an on going change in direction for me, starting with the launch of my second label diametric. in late 2009. That was the first step to more freedom, even though at the time I didn’t realise that it would become such a total and drastic change for me as a producer as well. 

I initially contacted you about Onmutu Mechanicks, is this still active? You told me you haven't really been following dub techno as much these days...

Onmutu Mechanicks is in a state of limbo at the moment. I have released an album on Echocord and some 12”s and I am very proud about that album as it shows (at least in my opinion) that there are still some possibilities in a very restricted genre such as dub techno. After the album I released another 12” on Echocord and some of the dub techno snobs actually gave me a hard time, saying I am a copycat and stuff like that. My reaction to this was to stop doing dub techno as I really can’t be bothered with stupid comments and this was exactly the kind of restrictions and closed-mindedness I wanted to get away from. So the chances that I will revive Onmutu Mechanicks are rather slim at the moment, but who knows, maybe some day….

You also moved to Glasgow, is that right? 

Yes, almost six years ago. The decision was mostly because my wife and I had issues with the life style of German society. Everything is about work and the status quo, and we didn’t enjoy life as much as we do now in Scotland. Also, Glasgow offers so much cultural variety, and, Glaswegians are, simply put, a wonderful breed of humans; honest, in your face, direct, pretty crazy; all things we like. The downside of Glasgow is the stupid violence, especially linked to football, but I suppose every society has its dark sides.

How are you enjoying life in Scotland?

It’s wonderful. Work life is much easier, people are nice and friendly and the countryside is just breathtaking and beautiful. One hour to get into the middle of nowhere and be surrounded by nature is a big advantage and we go to the Highlands as much as we can.

How are things going at your label diametric.. I discovered it listening to your Xenolith album. What has the label achieved since then?

I am very happy with diametric. which like Valanx, doesn’t follow any of the typical rules. It is hard, really hard to make it all work financially as the market is so over saturated and people really need to be forced to take notice, especially when you are running a label that is not focusing on trends and the dancefloor as much as others. I am very much influenced by the diversity of labels from the ‘70s such as Harvest for example, and I enjoy the broad spectrum of music and formats that I am able to work with. diametric. releases techno, electro, ambient, drone, experimental and electronica on vinyl, CD and tape. A lot of people expect a label to do one kind of music on one format. As I don’t follow that rule it is hard to sell the releases, but so far I am able to keep the ball rolling and there is a small, but very enthusiastic and loyal fan base out there, and those people are the reason I do this, because they enjoy the music and the variety in the same way I do. To answer your question, diametric. has achieved being alive after almost 5 years.

How would you describe the music of diametric.?

In general I’d say that the music is rather dark and most of the time functionality is not the interesting part of it. The music on diametric. can be anything, I would even release guitar based music if I like what I hear on a demo for example. For me, it is important that I feel I have a connection to the artist. And, I don’t like to work with divas, sometimes artists expect things from a small label that are simply ridiculous and I don’t want to work with people that don’t have the same passion as me. I’d like to see diametric. as a family of like-minded people, and at the end of the day I don’t care what kind of music they do. If I like it then I’ll go for it, no matter what people out there think.

diametric. has almost reached its 20th release. Did you think it would get this far?

No, I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’m struggling and there is always the danger that I will not be able to finance it further because sales are not really good. I don’t have a problem admitting this, people should know about the reality of the music business these days. What I learned from running my first label, AW-Recordings, is that no matter what others tell you, you should always follow your instincts and don't compromise in order to generate sales. As for the future I don’t know where this all will go, but I'm simply enjoying the ride and I'll do whatever I like to do. As long as I have fun and I can finance the releases, diametric. will live on.

Let's talk about the mix. How was it recorded and what were you hoping to achieve?

The mix is a collage of sorts, I wanted to create an atmosphere with it. Technically this is all done with Ableton Live, nothing fancy, I’m not going to pretend I am a super skilled DJ. With the kind of music that is featured on this mix I don’t see the point of long-beat-match-mixing. The mix is about a journey and I hope people will enjoy the trip.

What else are you working on at the moment, both yourself and diametric.?

I personally have just finished a new project called Solemn Embrace that is done, completely with my Eurorack Modular system, a radio and some effects. It's highly experimental and weird. I enjoyed this project very much, every single sound is done with my modular system. I’ve just released this recording as a cassette on diametric., 50 copies only, that’s it. That’s what makes me happy these days. There will be a mini-album on Solar One Music in early 2014 by Val_Ex, a collaboration between The Exaltics and Valanx; dark and brooding industrial electro. Other than that I have just released the second Valanx album Ejecta on CD on diametrc. and I’m currently working on the next release which is a 12” of remixes from the Valanx album. Remixers are: The Exaltics, Adam X, CRC (of Morphology) and Louis Haiman, and that record is huge. After that there will be a CD album by a new artist called Sons of Melancholia, wonderful deep melodic IDM, which reminds me of early Autechre for example. And last but not least there are 12”s in the pipeline from FBK and Oliver Kapp. Both straight techno bangers. So yeah, I keep busy.

Do you drink tea?

Yes, I love tea. My favourite is Scottish black tea. It is specially made for the Scottish water which is very soft. Wonderful stuff really. I also like green tea, for example Chinese gun powder tea.

TEA

Tracklist:

01. Cranium Pie - This Was Now / Awakening Of The Birds [Regal Crabomophone]
02. Nocturno Culto - Bastard son [Peaceville]
03. Mika Vainio - Freight [Blast First Petite]
04. Florian Von Ameln - Oblique Texture [Futuresequence]
05. ADMX71 - Nine Decades Later [Sonic Groove Experiments]
06. Troller - Tiger [Living Tapes]
07. ASC - Falling From The Sky [Silent Season]
08. Mika Vainio - Sub Atlantic [[Blast First Petite]
09. Valanx - Spawn [diametric.]
10. Ian Martin - Double Cross [Elephant Recordings]
11. Nacht Plank - Glisten [Lampse]

TEA Podcast Valanx Duration: 59:49

Diary Of A Lonely DJ In Berlin

TEA's haphazard Diary Of A Lonely DJ is the sharing of personal anecdotes, memories and accounts from enjoyable or not so enjoyable times spent with electronic music, which this time comes from a four day weekend in Berlin.

Going out and witnessing DJ sets and live performances first hand is probably the best research you can do as a music writer, and what better place to do this than Berlin. Yes it’s the old cliche; techno in Berlin, but what many people don’t appreciate about the city is it holds more clubbing opportunities than what you'll know is on offer. My weekend began on Friday night where I caught the second half of a panel discussion hosted by Will Lynch that put Berlin record stores and their micro-habitat under the microscope. Speakers included Finn Johannsen of Hardwax, OYE-Records owner Markus Linder, Christian Pannenborg of Recordloft and a young Parisian, Etienne Dauta, who’s recently moved to Berlin and opened his own so far successful record store, Bass Cadet.

Finn Johansen made the point that record stores, such as Hard Wax, have become a trusted music filter for customers, while other topics included the growing rate of females' involvement in these retailers, the genesis of Max Graef at OYE, successful labels, Discogs and other idiosyncratic nuances of the record industry, such as Hard Wax banishing the phrase TIP! from their website. Later that night I saw Emptyset play at a Raster-Noton themed Berghain, and after being hit square in the chest by a super-charged sonic pulse of sine wave delivered direct from Paul Purgas and James Ginzburg, I remember thinking how foolish it was to think I had earlier contemplated not going because I was tired. For more than a hour the Emptyset billowed Berghain with a powerful live show, visually enhanced by the synced (random) dot patterns of (Ryoji Ikeda-esque) television static playing on two large screens.

My late arrival meant I missed Atom TM’s live show, whose first track, I was told, referenced Bob Dylan’s iconic music video to “My Subterranean Blues”. Pop HD indeed. Upstairs Panorama Bar played host to Laurent Garnier and a lot of fashionably queer characters. It had the vibe of how I picture Innervisions parties to be in several years time, which was quite the contrast to the crowd Raster-Noton pulled below. 

The last DJ set downstairs came from Credit 00, an Uncanny Valley affiliated artist that closed the night (of what I saw) suitably with a selection of techno that sounded like Aphex Twin covering Livity Sound. I didn't recognise a single track and enjoyed a lot of what I heard (which is always a good sign). 00’s jerky movements in the booth were also interesting to watch. One track I did take home with me though was “Channel B” by Mono Junk, which entered my ears after reverberating down Berghain's stairs into the cloak room as I was putting on my jacket to leave.

Saturday night presented Tresor, which before then I’d only experienced through a few poorly subtitled techno documentaries. Standing out the front was like being somewhere I’d only seen on TV (like Mount Rushmore or something). I remember hearing a conversation in the line about the difference in etiquettes between Berghain and Tresor, but contrary to what some people say, not everyone gets into Tresor; the two males in front of us were denied entry with a semi-empathetic shake of the doorman's head.

Inside, the club's walls are either black, or a raw, grey-cast concrete. The club’s lined with coloured lights which evoke a feeling of Trainspotting, but also a Hollywood movie recreating the night club experience badly - the cloak room playing irrelevant psy-trance for example. Before checking out Marcelus and Juan Atkins downstairs, I first experienced the spectacular sounding Globus, Tresor’s other room. Dutch label Clone were in charge and 2562 had just taken over from Dexter's opening set. 

After several funkier tracks from 2562, a labyrinth of stairs and a dank, dusty tunnel led me to Tresor where Marcelus was booming out slab-after-slab of heaving 909 techno. Down there it felt like I was never too far from the sound of breaking glass, which didn't seem to bother people; prompting me to realise that I, nor anyone else, had been patted down entering the club. The bar service however was some of the best I’ve had. My change, drink and redeemable 50 cent Tresor token were handed back to me faster than I could casually pay their respectable prices.

Tresor's not really a club that lends itself to trainspotting, but a white splattered record being put back in its sleeve by Marcelus was my hint that JC's then unreleased Endurance EP, on Deeply Rooted, had just given the newly installed Void system an enjoyable workout. The sound in Tresor initially came across as coarse, but the more I settled into the club, and its dark dwellings, I learned how suitable a rawer sound was for the space; tough and scraping, but not painful. 

Back in Globus, 2562’s set came to an end with some UK garage sounding melodies, and other keys and chords shone brightly through the system. The highs were crisp, the mids were clear and the bass was more physical than audible. Alden Tyrell followed up and delivered the night's highlight, a hour and a half (or so) of highly danceable, high octane club tracks. It was Clone's Basement Series live in the flesh and hearing Tyrell's “Rush” from his CBS 12” couldn't have been a better way to experience this. All that was missing was a basement. 

Completing Clone's takeover was label owner Serge, who from afar looked liked Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger playing west coast electro. He was cool looking, composed and well dressed in a royal blue shirt, and his mixing was executed with the clinical precision. Early into his set however, mid-mix, either a needle skipped or a CD jumped, or something, throwing Serge's seamlessness way off the tracks with a clutter.

He didn't make it obvious, but after killing that mix short, it was apparent he was upset at the unfortunate glitch and as a result lost the full dancefloor left by Tyrrell. Literally hot under the collar, Serge stripped down from his smart blue number to a brown T-shirt and worked on rebuilding his dancefloor, and over four to five tracks, won the punters back with some rave. It was professional DJing at its best.

As difficult it is to watch someone lose their cool, it's twice as rewarding to watch someone earn it back, like a footballer that’s scored an own goal, who then scores two more at the right end to win the match. The rave card proved a masterstroke for Serge and his hard work, and renewed composure, payed off. A wave of clubbers made their way out of the clubs cracks and crevices, whooping and cheering to this unidentified hit. Serge was back and he fist pumped the air in recognition/gratitude of his returned dancers, which was doubly reciprocated.

Shortly afterwards I caught what was left of Juan Atkins set back in Tresor, which was loud, fast and melodic. Some lone characters wearing D(etroit) baseball caps were scattered around the perimeter and it felt all the more real to think Detroit was in the building. The wild card of the night however was german DJ Manuel Münster. Wearing a Mastodon T-shirt, he'd signalled his intentions before playing a record, and when he did, it was ferocious and non-stop. At irregular intervals the room would fill with so much smoke that all you could see were strobe lights flashing in thick grey fog. A serious (and surreal) clubbing experience not really fit for the faint hearted.

A 6pm flight home on the Monday meant I had the excuse for one more night out, and walking through Friedrichshain, passing some words of anti-gentrification, I made my way to see the Giegling crew play an unannounced gig at Sisyphos, a club or commune looking place that's like something out of Easy Rider. This was another new Berlin club for me and I arrived early, about 12:30am. My entry was a comedy of awkwardness. I was about as cool as a dropped pie. Clipping my foot on the step in, I was then pin-balled around by the several unimpressed door men, ignored at the cashier by someone cradling a cat in a blanket, and I chose the wrong, locked door, to actually get in the place.

Sisyphos has three rooms. The first, on the left as you enter the club, is a small Hawaiian-like hut, which that night was filled with a musky aroma of stale love, poppers maybe, soundtracked by the type of music you’d expect to hear at a Wolf & Lamb after-party that's gone on for too long. Room one, as I dubbed it, was like a basement club you'd expect to find off the beaten track in Tijuana during Spring Break. Inside was a large fan blowing department store hot-air on to the dancefloor drenched in terrifying (and very disorientating) blue strobes and equally frightening music. I spent my time at Sisyphos in the wooden rotunda ('Room 2'), which to enter involved crossing a makeshift bridge of wooden palettes floating on mud.

To my pleasant surprise John Osborn was playing. It was a set of pumping appreggios, progressive builds and big mixes. And although I'm still yet to connect with John Osborn’s music and DJ sets, the long and technical mixes the Tanstaafl Records boss pulled out were impressive. One moment in particular saw Osborn look up in appreciation to a room cheering his longest mix of the night, that, if it were him surfing, would have looked something like this.

Afterwards, Giegling co-founders Dj Dustin and Konstantin joined Ateq in providing Sisyphos with six-plus hours (I left at 9:30am and the party was far from over) of super dry minimalism; for the majority captained by Ateq. Dustin and Konstantin took turns cutting in with snippets of calypso house, Russian Torrent Versions and an endless supply of other minimal and housey essentials for a Monday morning's clubbing.

TEA

Fresh TEA: Point Break

A single track from a Silent Servant DJ set recorded at New York club Output earlier this year was enough to convince TEA we needed to know more about new local pairing Point Break.

If there's ever a compliment to be had in the world of electronic music it's to have your record played by Silent Servant. Juan Mendez is the type of selector whose DJ sets translate just as well to the podcast as they do in a live environment. His mix for FACT last year, which proved to many that jangly guitars can be just as cool as sequenced drum machines, was one such example of why his podcasts are becoming something of legend. Two live recordings to surface this year from the Jealous God creative director include a two-hour mix for San Francisco-party Honey Soundsystem, while the other was the aforementioned DJ set for Output.

It was the latter that alerted me to New York upstarts Point Break. In the short time that a tracklist was available (only a matter of hours from memory) I was able to scour the internet for more on the mysterious Point Break, which lead me to LAG001. The stone crunching beats and gallant horns of "Sidewalks" was, by Mendez, eloquently laced between some of his own euphoric material from Negative Fascination, while jacking Chicago house was blended with some anthemic Nitzer Ebb (and other unknown must-haves) before closing on Severed Heads classic “Dead Eyes Opened”. 

After discovering the name behind LAG001, some relatively easy Facebook sleuthing led me to Cory Metzinger and Arthur Kimkskii who together are Point Break. Over email I hit the duo up to find out more about them and what they had planned for the road ahead, as well as that knock-out cut "Sidewalks".

Hi guys, how’s it going? Perhaps we'll have you start off by explaining a little about yourself, how you two met, and what you're getting up to in NYC. 

Arthur: Hi, thanks for getting in touch. I grew up traveling back-and-forth between Seoul, Korea and where I was born in Washington DC. I discovered house and techno in DC in '91. I started collecting records in '95 and finally bought some decks in '96. I moved to New York in 2003. From 2001 until 2007 I stopped DJing all together and trained as an actor for three years; auditioning and pursuing that life. Halfway through my training I realised that all of my activities for class involved music. I bought new decks in '07 and started throwing a series of parties with a couple of friends that involved food and music in The Old Supreme Trading in Williamsburg. I basically was involved in various parties in New York from then until recently. 

And Cory, happy birthday for the other week.

Cory: Thanks man, I appreciate it. I'm a New York, Long Island born DJ and producer. I got a job at a record store so I got deeper into collecting records of all kinds, which helped me trace the history of this music I've become so obsessed with. I've been DJing around the city since 2003 and got into producing music around 2002. 

Arthur and I met at a party in 2010 in Brooklyn called Cassette which was actually a party run by the guys from Sepalcure. We had a conversation about our love of techno and Arthur mentioned he was throwing a party at a club called LOVE in the West Village. He asked Arthur for a demo and that followed up with him being booked to play the warm up set for a heavy line-up including Martyn, Falty DL and Tanner Ross.

From there a friendship began to develop and we started hanging out and playing records. We went on to put together two different parties in NYC bringing guests like Shifted, Virginia, ASC and Monty Luke to town. We had both moved to Brooklyn and naturally started to work in the studio together while putting on these parties.

LAG is your label right?. How is it going?

Cory: LAG is Arthur's label.

Arthurs: Well, we had a bunch of tracks finished. We sent them to a few labels. One of them being Anthony Parasole's. He got back to us and gave us a lot of positive feedback and at one point was considering releasing "Sidewalks". He ended up telling us that he loved the track but had a backed up schedule and gave us the choice of waiting, maybe, a year, (and said) that we should keep shopping it. It was all the encouragement I needed to start the label... I made of a lot of decisions concerning the mastering and pressing etc. with Cory since it was both ours' first release. The record did really well. LAG002 is in the process of being made right now. It's a split four-track EP. Two tracks from us (Point Break) and two from our friend Jordan Poling. We're aiming for a late November release. 

OK. So let's talk about “Sidewalks” which I first heard in a mix by Silent Servant recorded at Output this year. It's one of my favourite mixes of the year and one I’ve listened to several times. Your track for me really stood out, and when I looked it up it was either unreleased, or had only been released in the US... Is there a story to how Juan Mendez found the record in his hands?

Arthur: The record had been released in March and was slotted to come out on Juno in April but I think the ones we sent out to Europe sold out. Halcyon, the record store we always go to, took a bunch of copies and sent the rest to Juno. I'll let Cory tell you about Silent Servant.

Cory: I met Juan in Detroit this year and gave him a copy of the record. We were wondering what his reaction was to it and we both got text messages from our friends saying he was playing it at Output that night. We were shocked and happy to find this out as we're both big fans of the guy's music.

How does it feel to be part of New York clubbing at the moment? From afar it seems like techno in New York is really growing?

Cory and Arthur: There is a lot going on in NYC right now and we think it's great. People seem to be bringing great talent (to the city). No matter what you're into there are great guests coming here week-in-week-out. It's really inspiring. We like to go listen to music at new places like Output which has arguably the best sound system in North America. Bossa Nova is another spot in Bushwick which has a nice system, great drinks and really cool bookings for some weekday-and-weekend fun. 

On the other hand we have noticed a decline in loft and warehouse parties which is a big part of what makes this place (New York) so special. We saw lots of great performances at Public Assembly for The Bunker; Marcel Dettman, Ben Klock, Peter Van Hoesen, Silent Servant, Function, Untold, Shawn O Sullivan, Steffi have all crushed that room. Blkmarket did a Sub:stance party with Luke Slater as LB Dub Corp which we still talk about. They also hosted Carl Craig's Verus 2.0 which really blew us away. There are a lot of great labels, talent, and DJs from New York it's undeniable - the music here is alive and healthy.

Outside of the bigger names like Anthony Parasole, Levon Vincent to guys like DJ Q, Fred P or DJ Spider and his crew - who are you guys enjoying recently and who do you look to for inspiration?

Cory and Arthur: At the moment all of the names mentioned - the Underground Quality guys and Spider - are definitely an inspiration to us. We love their records. As far as other artists and labels we enjoy I'd say we are really into and influenced by Robert Hood, 808 State, Autechre - a lot of early drum and bass; Ed Rush, V Recordings - to Luke Slater and Mike Denhert, while early Ninja Tune is also a big one for both of us. As far as other artists and labels locally, we like Joey Anderson, Taimur Agha, A. Arias, Voodoo Down, Sequencias and Dakini 9. We also both love Talking Heads and Prince!

The Sidewalks EP to me sounds as if it is more aligned with Europe than perhaps what’s normally associated with the US? What do you think?

Cory and Arthur: You're observation about our sound was actually surprising to both of us initially, however, we are into a lot of UK and German sounds too, so it's not so surprising after all. "Sidewalks" feels more American to us and the B-side probably sounds more European. 

Explain the mix you have done for us. Where and how was it recorded?

Cory and Arthur: Our mix was made with two Technics, a Vestax mixer and vinyl. We always strive to tell a story with our mixes. We play a mixture of local stuff, with some records for the diggers and a few records that might be big at the time.

New Yorkers, or those that have been there, always seem to jump at the chance to recommend a good pizza joint? What would you guys recommend?

Cory and Arthur: We both love Fornino on Bedford near North 7th street. They have great brick oven pizzas.

Do you guys drink tea over there? Do you have a favourite? 

Arthur: I'd say lots of tea gets consumed in New York. I love ginseng or green. Cory loves Roobios, but we are both into all kinds of tea.   

TEA

Tracklist:

1. Positive Centre - Thought and Intention [Our Circula Sound]
2. Tom Diciccio - Merk [Run Out Run]
3. Ron Trent - Manifesto [Future Vision Records]
4. Marco Shuttle - Tommo [Clone Store Only Series]
5. Levon Vincent - Together Forever [Novel Sound]
6. October - Galactic Dawn [Soul People Music]
7. Takenawa - Delicious Effect (Dakini 9 Remix) [Plan B Recordings]
8. The Analogue Cops - Snatchsquad [Fragil Musique]
9. Developer - More Matter [Modularz]
10. Etapp Kyle - Prizma [Klockworks]
11. Wincent Kunth - Relove (Edit) [Marcel Dettmann Records]

TEA Podcast: Point Break Duration 52:28

Pic Credits: Seze Devres 

Earl Grey: Tomas Rubeck

From a well established artist, to fledging new producer, Tomas Rubeck provides the second instalment to our new Earl Grey podcast.

When it comes to dub techno that's not produced or released by the usual suspects, the discerning ear naturally becomes all the more discerning. The masses of dub techno, modern dub techno let's call it, being released at the moment, often from continental Europe, can all to quickly wash into the single known template of filtered kicks, chords, delay and reverb. Because of this, upcoming producers to break away from the worn mould such as Tomas Rubeck stand out like a lighthouse for the lost, as this year's Inster EP demonstrated.

Tomas Rubeck belongs to a clutch of producers doing inventive things for the deeper strands of dubby techno; Federsen, Roger Gerressen and the ESHU collective, to Soren Jahan's René Audiard alias among his contemporaries. So far in 2013 Rubeck has released the one aforementioned solo EP, featuring the excellent "Inster 2" and remix from Mattias Fridell who continues to impress with every remix he does, proving to become somewhat of a remix specialist.

Based out of Derby, east Midlands area of the UK, Rubeck could be considered somewhat of an anchorite for the sound he delivers. Following digital EPs for Landed Productions, his vinyl debut came through the Maltese cuisine inspired Lampuka Records in 2011. Since then he's further developed his sound, earning a call up from the established Telrae imprint earlier this year, reworking a track from the debut EP by new name Andrea Cichecki, while most recently Rubeck's "Factions" appeared alongside productions by Fridell, Myles Sergé and established Japanese artist Imugem Orihasam on a various artist sampler by ESHU.

It's with great pleasure that we invite Tomas Rubeck to curate the second edition of our Earl Grey series, in a mix that weaves its way through subby electro from Conforce to the shaman inspired rhythmics of Dino Sabatini and Donato Dozzy.

TEA

Pic credit: Aoki Takamasa

Tracklist:

01. Artefakt - The Other Sun [Field Recordings] 
02. Conforce - Wave Trace [Delsin] 
03. Hakimonu - Cadence One [ESHU Records] 
04. Eduardo de la Calle - Dynamic Arrangement (Donato Dozzy Remix) [Dynamic Reflection] 
05. Bleak - Bold [Sudden Drop]
06. Adriano Lopez - Lines of Fracture [Unknown] 
07. Function - Gradient [Ostgut Ton] 
08. Dino Sabatini - Telomachus [Outis Music] 
09. Deadbeat - Peripheral Artifacts [Stroboscopic Arefacts] 
10. ESHU - 24BHT [Opaak Records]
11. Kessel - Fear of Influence [Granulart Recordings] 
12. Kashawar - Nightwalk [Project London] 
13. Andrea Cichecki - Subjective [Telrae]

Earl Grey Podcast:Tomas Rubeck Duration: 1:16:35

TEA Podcast: Ryo Murakami [Depth Of Decay]

Keeping our podcast series in Japan for a second week is Ryo Murakami's live Depth Of Decay set recorded at Tokyo nightclub Soup.



All three live sets that have graced our TEA Podcast this year have come from Japanese artists. The latest, a live combination of ambient, noise and drone from Ryo Murakami follows on from this year's first podcast by Yuji Kondo's storming Ada Nexino Ducercy alias, while last week's edition was provided by Aoki Takamasa with a live performance he recorded at Club Mago, Nagoya.

Funnily enough, Murakami, like Takamasa, calls Osaka home and earlier this year he took his Depth Of Decay set on the road to Tokyo which he kindly recorded for TEA. Murakami's production history leading up to his debut album, Depth Of Decay, has been a varied and colourful progression of sound design and reformation. From minimal productions for the likes of Steve Bug's Poker Flat and the Dessous label, to others on Morris Audio and Quintessentials, he then moved into dubbier techno terrain with the In Chain and Underworld EPs on the respective Curle and Baud labels.  

Murakami's dubbier productions evolved into something deeper with the launch of his own Panrecords. A particular highlight from the label's catalogue is the excellent "Deep Forest" from Pan Sampler Vol. 2 - also featuring tracks from Sven Weissemann and the impressive Imugem Orihasam - which suitably blends naturist soundscapes and aqueous dub with a pained Chris Isaak "Wicked Game" guitar lick that rings out like a delay engineered by Forrest Swords. Beautifully fitting.

Panrecords is yet to release anything this year, but the label took flight in 2011 with two EPs from Murakami himself, followed by a third from fellow Japanese producer Auji.Industries. 2012 brought with it the aforementioned sampler EPs (currently at two) and with Murakami's debut album comes a new label of the same name. 

Depth Of Decay is a 13 untitled track double LP which sees Murakami again flip the switch on his production technique for something decidedly leftfield. It's Murakami's only release this year, and it explores a new sonic landscape of thunderous electronics and statically charged hums of the most visceral never before heard by the Osaka-based artist. For an introduction to the Murakami's new shed of skin, take a listen to the one hour live set recorded at Soup club, Tokyo.

TEA

No tracklist provided

TEA Podcast: Ryo Murakami [Depth Of Decay] duration 58:40

Stanislav Tolkachev is Simple As A Miracle

Semantica offer Stanislav Tolkachev his debut proper on the revered Spanish label with the Simple As A Miracle EP.



Stanislav Tolkachev has been kickin' around for a few years, but in the past two he's started to earn the recognition he deserves. A large part of the Ukrainian's discography remains digital only, with his 2009 Remine album for Spanish label Subsist the pick of the bunch. Earlier this year Tolkachev released the superb Depth Of Light EP on M_Rec - a label that is also starting to earn some much warranted attention - which granted him his first solo 12" in his so far seven year career.

Prior to this Tolkachev's bigger titles have come through split releases with Russian artist Yuka on Dasha Rush's Fullpanda Records and a four track various artist EP on Semantica released earlier this featuring other music from Obtane, Mary Velo and the unstoppable Eduardo De La Calle.

Tolkachev's "Heartbeat" also appeared on Mike Parker's Geophone imprint alongside Voices From The Lake and Shifted's contender for track of the year with his remix to Parker's "Mnajdra", while in 2012 his excellent "Building Peaks" was tacked on the end of Developer's Part 2 for Modularz - a track which English producer Ø [Phase] used to open his Resident Advisor podcast. 

Now Tolkachev brings his free flowing form of electronica and heavily Detroit influenced (and hard to mix) productions to Semantica for a second time. Staying true to form, the Simple As A Miracle EP delivers four tracks of polyrhythmic and heavily arpeggiated techno with "Dog Saves Dog" and "Future" sounding like a Jeff Mills' inspired soundtrack to an insect documentary.

Tracklist:

A1. Simple As A Miracle 
A2. Dog Saves Dog 

B1. Future 
B2. Cold Hands Warm Heart 

TEA Podcast: Aoki Takamasa

Japanese beatmaker, photographer and all round creative Aoki Takamasa donates to the TEA Podcast a live show he recently recorded playing at Club Mago in Nagoya, Japan.



There's a certain kind of repetition in Aoki Takamasa's music that refuses to be boring. It's punchy and danceable as it is experimental and abstract. There's hip hop, there's techno, there's house, there's that sterile glitch 'n' hum. Takamasa is a Japanese artist from Osaka that's been producing his brand of processed electronics for more than ten years with releases on a collection of labels, notably one-sided vinylists SVAKT from Switzerland, Ryuichi Sakamoto's (of Yellow Magic Orchestra) Commons label, Berlin think-tank Stroboscopic Artefacts and Alva Noto's lab over at Raster-Noton.

Earlier this year Takamasa released the tenth album he's been involved in since his emergence in 2001 with the Silicom LP for Progressive Form, a Japanese imprint he later helped define. Rv8, the follow up to his 2009 Raster-Noton debut, Rn-Rhythm-Variations - a buzzing thrum of mechanical funk, sees Takamasa extend and refine the tumbling and in your face minimalism he first brought to the German label several years ago. 

There’s an undeniably synthetic hip hop feel to Takamasa's music too – the type you’d expect a Tokyo street performer to be robot-dancing to in the neon-bright Shibuya district. Combine this with smatterings of Japanese arcade tones - think Konami, Neo Geo, Capcom - '90s anime soundtracks and the oomph of a Wu-Tang/Ryoji Ikeda drum track/pattern and your somewhere around the mark of Takamasa's unique sound. 

Takamasa’s peculiar take on vocals is something that further defines his humble aesthetic, and a talent best heard on his 28 collaboration with female vocalist and Editions Mego artist Tujiko Noriko - and throughout the aforementioned Rn-Rhythm-Variations. Takamasa's Monad IX for Stroboscopic Artefacts could also be considered the release that first set the Berlin label in its scientific direction, with artists like Kanding Ray, French trio DSCRD and emerging Italian duo Plaster following on from previous releases to Takamasa by techno producers Donor, Pfirter, Markus Suckut and Perc.

Takamasa is also pretty nifty with a lens; his shot of a cyclist riding in Berlin Tempelhof Airport appears on NHK'Koyxeи's Dance Classics Vol. II released on PAN last year (a LP which hides in it one of the best techno tracks of 2012). He's not bad with a field recorder either, with some of his recordings, such as birds singing at 4:00am on a crisp Berlin morning, or Sound from streets in Berlin Mitte: 1st of January 2009 at around 0:40am are free to hear over at his his website.

For a taste of what he's currently up to, look no further than this live set recorded by Aoki Takamasa in August at Nagoya's Club Mago. Enjoy.

TEA

No tracklist provided.

TEA Podcast: Aoki Takamasa live at Nagoya Mago (August 9th 2013) Duration: 56:03

Sub Squared: A New Project

We speak with Paul Cooper of Project Squared about his new black paper bag project, Sub Squared.

Over several cups of tea on a cold east London night I met Paul Cooper for the first time. He invited me up to his apartment to listen to some of his favourite records, recent purchases and to talk about his label Project Squared, which was then readying the release of Kowton & Tom Dicicco’s joint Untitled EP. Project Squared at the time was releasing an intriguing concoction of garage, dubstep and dub techno influenced music, with the label's inaugural release giving one third of the Livity Sound troupe, Asusu, a place to release his first record, with the Bristolian following up with a second 12" the next year. 

Project Squared delivered other 12"s from Manchester duo AnD, whose 2011 Algorythmic Love EP remains in total contrast to the “harder harder harder harder” techno they are producing today, while Estonian artist L-OW provided the Pinpoint / Diver EP. That particular release featured an impressive and extended Furesshu edit of "Diver", whose dubby and functional Lucid / All I Want EP made way for the first remix by Shifted.

It’s been two years since that night in Bethnal Green, with Cooper moving to pastures new in Australia, while TEA relocated itself to London. Since Cooper's move to Melbourne he's become a familiar face among the local scene, hooking up with some of the city’s more accomplished, albeit underground, techno producers such as Ben Mill, aka Ground Loop (and the soon to be CTZN alias), and Craig McWhinney who ended Project Squared’s two year release drought with the syncopated and body rhythmic Make Your Mess EP.

Amidst this globe trotting a new pursuit has taken shape, Sub Squared, a fresh venture independent from Project: Mooncircle, the hip hop imprint run by Gordon Gieseking that is parent label to Cooper's Project Squared. So with all this talk of labels, sub-labels and projects, we caught up with the Sub & Project Squared boss, over email this time, where he spoke to TEA about a new life down under, his fascination with the cosmos and the pictures NASA takes of it, being heckled during a set at London club Plastic People, supporting MC duo Cannibal Ox - and the debut 12” from Sub Squared’s first signing, Siberian artist Ghostek. 

Paul Cooper has also provided a mix to showcase some of the upcoming Sub Squared material, including the just-released Ghostek 12" which you can stream below, while further exhibiting the Sub Squared aesthetic. 

Hey Paul, how’s it going?

Very well thanks James. Staring into excel at work, focusing on music in my spare time, seeing friends, enjoying my girlfriend's company, trying to stay sane.

It’s been a year since you made the moved to Melbourne from London, how are you finding the change?

Melbourne has many things that London doesn't and visa-versa, for example for me having such sparsely populated incredible countryside close by is amazing after spending all my life living in the south east of England. The food here is a lot better in general than in the UK, the atmosphere about the city is a lot more relaxed, the weather of course... On the other hand I miss London's clubs - being able to go out and hear cutting edge international and national djs and live acts on decent systems. 

There's a lot of Djs and producers in Melbourne but there's not really any club spaces that are focused primarily on the sound system. The Black promoters put together the best venue that I’ve experienced here in a basement with a properly setup hired system. It makes me wonder why someone with the cash to setup a club can’t do the same.

You’ve hooked up with local producer Craig McWhinney since you’ve been there?

Gordon (co-founder of Project Squared) initially put me on to Craig's music before I even knew I was moving to Australia. We talked about doing a record via email, then I found out I was moving over here and we started hanging out once I was in town. His “Make Your Mess” EP came out on Project Squared back in February this year. We've got a pretty similar taste in dance music and we get on well, they'll be a McWhinney EP coming out on Sub Squared next. There's a bunch of other local mates that I should call out too: Daniel (Filipovic) and the Pinksilver boys, Nic Tuohey, Ground Loop (CTZN), Lost Few and Lorenzo from Black, Will Elder, Phaon and Glen (Daniel), Asha Dirge, Carlos Matic, Kloke and Enclave. All great producers and-or DJs. 

Before we get on to your new sub-label, how are things going with Project Squared?

Things have slowed down with Project Squared. We’ve only released one record since the start of 2012. It’s not as if we ever had a particularly full schedule – we put out three 12"s a year for a couple of years – but one record in two years is obviously pretty sluggish. Part of it is perhaps just not coming across music of enough calibre to warrant release; part of it is having a series of unfortunate situations where I had releases that we wanted to put out, but the artists changed their minds about the tracks before release. 

Another part of it is that I run the label with Gordon Gieseking, a long-time friend and partner musically, and our taste is getting pretty divergent. That makes agreeing on releases and putting them out difficult. This is pretty much why I started Sub Squared. Saying all that, we're getting the next Project Squared release together at the moment which will hopefully be out this year or early next year. Neither of us feel the need to put out music for the sake of it - we wait until we can find something that we both think is amazing. 

So Sub Squared is your primary focus now? 

At the moment I've got the Ghostek release on Sub Squared imminent, but also as I said we're trying to get the tracks for the ninth Project Squared release sorted. There's also the second Sub Squared release from Craig McWhinney planned, just got the pre-masters from Craig today, so things have picked up a fair bit recently.

Not many people know, but you were once releasing hip hop beats as Mr Cooper. Has any of that translated into production?

I used to make hip hop, both production for rappers and solo-instrumental stuff. At first I was in a group called Mummy Fortuna’s Theatre Company during a particularly emo patch of my late teenage years. We released on Lex Records, a fledgling Warp Records offshoot at the time. I remember playing a set of Mo’ Wax style Hip Hop at Plastic People before realising or caring about how important the club was, we supported Cannibal Ox once as well. I remember at that show being up on stage in a packed club shitting myself, the audience went really quiet when we got up and someone shouted 'don’t fuck up'. The nerves must have been pretty obvious rather than the usual Hip Hop bravado. My mate Joe always carried the shows though, he was an incredible rapper.

After that I released two solo instrumental albums. The first initially as a CD-only release on Wimm Recordings from Tokyo, then (I released it) on vinyl with Project Mooncircle, and then (I had) another LP exclusively on Project Mooncircle. I also produced a track for Sage Francis that came out on Epitaph. 

For the last three years or so I haven’t really been able to finish a track. Occasionally I sit down and have a go at it, and I’ve got some promising loops on the computer, but the passion for making tunes isn’t there anymore and I never finish anything. It was hard transitioning from hip hop; (going from) entirely sample-based production, to trying to use clean, electronic sounds, to trying to make techno and dubstep tunes. I care less about fitting into a genre now though and producers like Miles, that seem to use a lot of samples and do it in a really freeform way, might lead me back to production. I need to get more disciplined about sitting down and getting back into it though. 

I know you are a big fan sounds from the UK. Is Sub Squared an outlet for that?

I like the ‘UK sound’, and you can definitely hear that in the first release from Ghostek, despite the fact that he comes from a mining town in Siberia; but the label isn’t meant exclusively for that sound. As I mentioned previously, it’s really just meant as an outlet for my own taste in unreleased music, rather than a collaborative venture as what Project Squared has been so far. 

Ghostek’s record has elements of garage, dubstep and darker techno, the second record from Craig McWhinney that I’ve got lined up is more firmly rooted in techno. On the other hand I don’t particularly want to release music that just sounds like stereotypical stuff from a current niche genre, but a good tune is a good tune. It’s best not to philosophise too much about it; just release what you really like, and what you still really like after a few weeks of listening. 

The label has a cosmic aesthetic.

I spent quite a while trying to come up an idea for the artwork. The obvious choice - to keep costs low - is to do hand stamping, but it’s been done to death, and besides I’m in Australia and the records are in Europe. After a while I settled on using images from the Cassini probe programme. Incredible photographs of Saturn’s moons, with shadow, contrast and colours that are amazing. I love the aesthetic of them, seeing pictures like that makes you forget about your daily bullshit, just as an good piece of music does. I recommend a google image search. 

So I guess you could call it a scientific aesthetic, not a science-fiction aesthetic? Did you see that meteor that flew over Russia in February?

I did read about the meteor strike at the time, but any link between releasing a record by a Russian producer and having what appears to be an asteroid on the artwork is purely coincidental! I’m not really interested in trying to portray a 'sci-fi' aesthetic, we’re not going to go all Jeff Mills and start having flying saucers on the labels or having concept-records about what it’s like to travel at the speed of light. Saying that though, links between the image of the label, and films like 2001(: A Space Odyssey) are easy to make. I love that film in particular, as well as a lot of other sci-fi film and literature, so I suppose that influenced my choosing of the photographs on some level.

Where does the connection with Ghostek come from? What is it that you liked about the release to have it as Sub Squared's first.

He sent a demo to the Project Squared email address.  I heard his earlier stuff and thought it was good, but the tunes in this demo were in a different league. I think he’s really found his own sound in the tracks on this release, more so than his previous stuff where you could hear the influences a lot more. I’m missing Plastic People too, and this to me, is a FWD record through and through. It captures a period of time when I was living in London and going out to a lot of nights where this sort of thing was being played.

What can you tell us about Ben Mill's CTZN project?

I don't really know what Ben's intention is with the CTZN project to be honest. He's played me the tune in the mix, which is really held-back and sparse, and another one that was quite banging and abrasive too, both under the same alias. You'll have to ask him for the conceptual detail. The important thing is that more Ben Mill, Ground Loop, CTZN tracks exist in the world.

What are your future plans for Sub Squared and Project Squared?

Release more high quality music on both labels. 

Tell us about the mix?

I wanted to do a mix that showcases the forthcoming Ghostek EP, so it includes three tracks from the record, and some other forthcoming music from Sub Squared. Worked around that are a bunch of other recent records that I’ve bought since coming to Australia – I haven’t got my whole collection here with me so it’s pretty much only new stuff. The first 40 minutes is all from vinyl, after that I mixed a few unreleased and digital only tunes in Ableton and glued it on to the vinyl section.

And how have you found any tea you like down under?

When I first got here I was shocked by the prominence of the 'tagged bag' on the tea scene (gives a poor brew, and the tag always ends up in the water) and I was considering ridiculous ideas like getting my parents to send over boxes of clipper tea bags from the UK. I'll put that down to early days homesickness. I quickly discovered Bushell’s rounds, which are now the stock tea bag of choice in the Cooper household.

TEA

Sub Squared Soundcloud

Sub Squared Facebook

Sub Squared Bandcamp

  

Tracklist:

01. Ghostek – Jaws  [Sub Squared] 

02. Line Cook – Zero [Basement Floor Records]

03. Breaker 1 2 - 2 [Forbidden Planet]

04. Berk Offset – Essbudenbude [Klangscheiben-Records]

05 .Ghostek – Vampires [Sub Squared] 

06. Asusu – Velez [Livity Sound]

07. Zeitgeber – Body Out [Stroboscopic Artefacts]

08. Tum Hulbruk - Dimens [LNUK Records]

09. Walton - Homage [Keysound]

10. Ghostek – No Way Out [Sub Squared] 

11. Kevin McPhee – In Circles [WNCL Recordings]

12. Tom Dicicco - Future Fiction [Project Mooncircle]

13. Craig McWhinney - Pulse For Harvest [Sub Squared] (forthcoming)

14. CTZN - Citizen One (unreleased)

Paul Cooper Sub Squared mix Duration: 1:23:04