Browse by Artist: FRIVOLOUS

Artist:	FRIVOLOUS
Title:	Kevork Motion EP
Label:	BACKGROUND RECORDS (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.50
Catalog #:	BG 047EP

"Background 047 by Vancouver's Daniel Gardener aka Frivolous features a mixture of musical approaches, between his previous Crankkongestion EP + Forty Inch EP on Background and the deep minimal side of things and his latest more pop-influenced releases on Karloff Recordings. Frivolous is expanding the new Canadian sound that has made a giant impact around the globe. He has comprised many unique features to his sound brought upon many inspiring factors."

Artist:	FRIVOLOUS
Title:	Somewhere In the Suburbs
Label:	KARLOFF (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	KARLOFF 001CD

"Now the Karloff headquarters show some consideration, bringing this synthesis of the arts called Somewhere in the Suburbs to the deserved, handy CD format, plus bonus tracks. Thus there's finally an album to close the ever gaping gap between the Pulp Fiction soundtrack and the Kruder & Dorfmeister mix CD, which so often caused this perplex mimic of students looking at their flat share's CD rack. This year Frivolous provides the most beautiful music for the current barbecue season, and with his minimal-experimental singer/songwriter house, he has finally made up his very private spot on the map of electronic music. Over are the times of Isaac Hayes as the only patron for romantic snogging, or couple dance being strictly taboo on electronic dancefloors. The time is right for the next big step, and the first artist album on Karloff -- your specialists in noisy crackle rave and whisked instrumental pop. Now you're being administered a bundle of full-grown catchy tunes that seem to remain in your bloodstream forever, knowing no frontiers. Who ever wanted to know how Paolo Conto may sound through vocoder, or your prime minister on weed, now should enjoy himself and stop questioning the fact that aliens need love, too..."

Artist:	FRIVOLOUS
Title:	The Romantek EP
Label:	KARLOFF (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	KARLOFF 002EP

"Vancouver's Daniel Gardner aka 'Frivolous' has released two 12" EPs on Background Records so far, making him known for minimal clicking house with that certain flavour of its own. The current Romantek EP on Karloff now does a further step to his stylistic peculiarity, and turns out to be a true firework of slightly ironic, musical bizarreness, combined with loads of clatter and a reduced, but well-grounded house groove, being particularly effective with the floor-oriented 'Song Of The Kwaning Bird'. Especially the ever unexpectedly emerging fragments of guitars, brasses and vocals contribute to a fresh, disharmonic musicality, somewhere between Texan prairie and the jump-an-run-game-spooky-castle. Scary darkness and that cheerful way of minimalism have never been so close before."

Artist:	FRIVOLOUS
Title:	Coquitlam BC EP (1 of 2)
Label:	KARLOFF (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	KARLOFF 007EP

"If the last beach boy would trade his surf board for a laptop, this wouldn't keep him from writing pop songs for the eternity. Unfortunately frivolous now steals a march on him, by releasing Coquitlam BC, the first part of his two-EP-set on Karloff, which will surely make this world a better place. Being known for his previous releases on Karloff and background, the man from Montreal has secretly raised the level to the highest stage, while all those slick, snippet-moving sound nerds have already suffocated from their latte macciatos. As a result we get hip house with some extra hop boggledop for the plush disco at home, but also being loudly welcomed by this world's advanced dancefloors. Still open is the question, who gave the vocoder to Paolo Conte, as well as our dance recommendation: couple dance, along with champagne on Asperol -- this vitalizes and stimulates the libido."

Artist:	FRIVOLOUS
Title:	Impermeable Disguise
Label:	KARLOFF (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	KARLOFF 014EP

"After his incredibly beautiful 'Buffet Haraja' Frivolous now tenders the next jewel, once again taking the freedom that his inclinated pop needs to attain its full effectiveness. A four-tracker of brilliant eccentricity is awaiting the listener, and once more you will never guess which catchy inconsistencies this Canadian prankster will come up with next. The unheard becomes hearable, and this way Frivolous accomplishes the oldest paradigm of electronic music, without ever lapsing into theoretic approaches, rather cultivating this visceral and slap-happy way of production that you can rarely hear anywhere else."

Artist:	FRIVOLOUS
Title:	Frivolous vs. The Phantom Power
Label:	KARLOFF (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	KARLOFF 019EP

"The great hero of little miracles is back: Frivolous returns from another big expedition on the seven seas to present Karloff all kinds of obscure and beautiful floatsam. The Cousteau of glitch pop has descended into unimagined depths once again, to uncover real pirate treasure of at least three centuries, in the middle of singing whales and chirping jellyfish, ready to enchant visitors from Bucarest to Buxtehude. Handicraft, backbone and pure genius are the characteristics that a real adventurer needs, and this man has enough of all that to last for whole generations of oceanographers. But beware of the tentacles: once they have adhered, you'll have a hard time getting rid of them again."

Artist:	FRIVOLOUS
Title:	The Emoticon Don EP
Label:	MINIBAR (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	MINI 013EP

The DIY man from Vancouver is back! He's been shaking the floors for 12 years and will once again bewitch you. Now with more than 40 releases and over a dozen EPs, Frivolous has toured the globe playing an eclectic array of venues and festivals along the way. This time, two kinds of Italo-Frenchy-jazzy electronic interludes help you take your breath between two crazy, bass-y funksters. Two spicy tracks that will add pure happiness to your Minibar house cocktail.

Artist:	FRIVOLOUS
Title:	Midnight Black Indulgence
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	SCAPE 043CD

This is the second full-length release from Canadian transplant to Berlin, Frivolous (Daniel Gardner). Frivolous is a protagonist of the minimal house scene who has released more than ten EPs. Midnight Black Indulgence marks a watershed in Gardner's career. For the first time, influences and inspirations are clearly discernible. Moments of pure dance ecstasy are followed by string interludes or appear next to jazz ballads. The connections Frivolous makes are of a convincing, almost compelling logic, and derive from his many years in the mid-'90s, peddling the new European minimalist sound as a club DJ in Vancouver. Struggling for acceptance amongst a Canadian scene obsessed with U.S. house music, Gardner sent his demos to five renowned German labels, and three of them wanted to release his music straightaway. The advanced minimal sound he has bestowed upon electronic dance music has a new, sophisticated body and generates a feeling for song structure within the house and techno format. At the same time, his understanding of melody and voice does not stem from a threadbare and shop-worn view on '80s pop music (as so often is the case), but from jazz. In his music, jazz and "jazziness" do not work as tacky, transfigured quotations but as snapshots full of character; impressions of feelings materialized as sound. Says Daniel: "For me jazz means a looseness and a feeling that can only be created by humans. It is the anti-machine. Even if it is sampled, it is usually for the quality of a magical moment that can't be graphed with 0-127 on time-code.." And although the tracks on Midnight Black Indulgence never pompously serve as a display for his musical prowess, there is something risky and luxurious about them. The dense and emotional thread which he weaves throughout the album was developed from baroque music, and alongside techno and dance experiments, he also stunningly incorporates classic instruments and vocals into an environment built on experiments with glitchy cut-up funk and found sound.

Artist:	FRIVOLOUS
Title:	Midnight Black Indulgence
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.50
Catalog #:	SCAPE 043EP

Daniel Gardner aka Frivolous releases his second full-length record, and here are a few of its tracks pressed to vinyl. On Midnight Black Indulgence moments of pure dance ecstasy are followed by string interludes or appear next to jazz ballads, and the advanced minimal sound Gardner bestows upon electronic dance music has a new, sophisticated body, generating a feeling for song structure within the house and techno format. The dense and emotional thread which he weaves throughout the album was developed from baroque music, and alongside techno and dance experiments, he also stunningly incorporates classic instruments and vocals into an environment built on experiments with glitchy cut-up funk and found sound.

Previous Page Index of Artists Next Page