Browse by Artist: HOULE, MARC

Artist:	HOULE, MARC
Title:	Undercover
Label:	ITEMS & THINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	ITEM 012CD

Marc Houle has been famous for his releases on Richie Hawtin's M_nus label. Now the U.S. producer unleashes his brand-new album on his own imprint Items & Things (which is co-owned by Magda and Troy Pierce). Undercover is a double departure. His last album, Drift (MINUS 098CD/LP) was on M_nus, and his label, Items & Things, was a M_nus sub-label. He's now left the label, and Items & Things stands on its own two feet. With this new-found freedom, Marc's synth-driven techno sound continues to grow, evolve and surprise. Nowhere is this growth more evident than in the tracks that make up Undercover. Things kick off with "Hearing," which has a bassline that drives like a vintage Mercedes shifting gears on the Autobahn as it picks up speed. The synths, with their soft melody, let you know how smooth the suspension is while a metallic voice whispers in your ear from the back seat. "Undercover" is a case study in the deep and moody side of old school Chicago house. "Juno 6660" sounds like what could have happened if early Warp artists like LFO and Sweet Exorcist had grown up on NYC freestyle rather than Detroit techno. "Very Bad" is actually very good, so Marc must be referring to something else entirely. "Bink" sounds like it's from an old music box that's been wound up just a little too far, held steady only by 4/4 beat, acid house claps and bouncy bass. On "Am Am Am," Marc takes things in a bit of an industrial direction. Not the industrial of Nitzer Ebb and Einstürzende Neubauten, but rather, a construction site buried deep inside an unsettling dream. When "Mooder" drops, you wake up slowly and find yourself back on the dancefloor. The track's driving rhythm and pitter-pat toms keep things moving underneath the track's ever-dreamy pads. The album concludes with "Under The Neath," which succeeds in taking things even deeper while at the same time unearthing Marc's roots in the sound of Detroit techno. With influence and inspiration from such diverse sources, Undercover carves out a distinctive flow that is all his own.

Artist:	HOULE, MARC
Title:	Undercover
Label:	ITEMS & THINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$21.00
Catalog #:	ITEM 012LP

Gatefold double LP version. Marc Houle has been famous for his releases on Richie Hawtin's M_nus label. Now the U.S. producer unleashes his brand-new album on his own imprint Items & Things (which is co-owned by Magda and Troy Pierce). Undercover is a double departure. His last album, Drift (MINUS 098CD/LP) was on M_nus, and his label, Items & Things, was a M_nus sub-label. He's now left the label, and Items & Things stands on its own two feet. With this new-found freedom, Marc's synth-driven techno sound continues to grow, evolve and surprise. Nowhere is this growth more evident than in the tracks that make up Undercover. Things kick off with "Hearing," which has a bassline that drives like a vintage Mercedes shifting gears on the Autobahn as it picks up speed. The synths, with their soft melody, let you know how smooth the suspension is while a metallic voice whispers in your ear from the back seat. "Undercover" is a case study in the deep and moody side of old school Chicago house. "Juno 6660" sounds like what could have happened if early Warp artists like LFO and Sweet Exorcist had grown up on NYC freestyle rather than Detroit techno. "Very Bad" is actually very good, so Marc must be referring to something else entirely. "Bink" sounds like it's from an old music box that's been wound up just a little too far, held steady only by 4/4 beat, acid house claps and bouncy bass. On "Am Am Am," Marc takes things in a bit of an industrial direction. Not the industrial of Nitzer Ebb and Einstürzende Neubauten, but rather, a construction site buried deep inside an unsettling dream. When "Mooder" drops, you wake up slowly and find yourself back on the dancefloor. The track's driving rhythm and pitter-pat toms keep things moving underneath the track's ever-dreamy pads. The album concludes with "Under The Neath," which succeeds in taking things even deeper while at the same time unearthing Marc's roots in the sound of Detroit techno. With influence and inspiration from such diverse sources, Undercover carves out a distinctive flow that is all his own.

Artist:	HOULE, MARC
Title:	Bay of Figs
Label:	MINUS (CANADA)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	MINUS 042LP

This is the second full-length release by Ontario-based Marc Houle, only released on vinyl. Over the course of the past two years, Marc Houle's music has quickly elevated his studio prose into desired analog-soaked treasures of the dancefloor. Developing fans with each vinyl release, straight to the club, this new double-pack outing titled Bay Of Figs showcases new developments in his already minimal pop genius. From the manic title track onward, his sound continues to develop from a rich bed of electro-pop and minimal techno, with gems that stay in the groove or contort themselves by design. The Arctic storm that is Bay of Figs sends a simple yet effective message through its haunting and menacing drone. On the bouncing and loose "Thirds In Trees," Marc drops in live claps and bass guitar for a melodic and hooky mood. A clear fan of Euro and industrial attitudes from decades past, "Black Jack 13" claps and bends with electro fever, rattling around erratic effects and synth lines all under four minutes' time. One of the more intense tracks in Houle's live sets is the square-wave melody of "Edamame." But it's "Items and Things" that highlights Houle's musicianship for synth pop while also revealing his obvious contribution to another side project, Run Stop Restore (the trio with Magda and Troy Pierce). Houle's arrangements, melodies and choice effects create easy instrumentals that hold their own beauty without vocal attachments. Between DJs championing his work in clubs and after-parties, Bay of Figs is an essential addition.

Artist:	HOULE, MARC
Title:	Techno Vocals/On It
Label:	MINUS (CANADA)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	MINUS 050EP

To mark the label's 50th release, Marc Houle gets back to the basics with two raw, stripped-down future classics. On "Techno Vocals" each sound commands its own space: rigid drum patterns, analog explosions, regimented snare rolls, laser-guided effects and delayed bleeps match a perfect, pitched-down vocal hook. "On It" revolves around a heavily filtered melodic bass riff and a choice selection of rough, old school samples and moody bass variations that give the track its distinctive flavor.

Artist:	HOULE, MARC
Title:	Sixty-Four
Label:	MINUS (CANADA)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	MINUS 064LP

This is the third full-length release by Ontario-based Marc Houle, only released on vinyl. Sixty-Four represents an exciting phase in Marc Houle's production cycle with most of the year having been spent testing ideas for his album. As a result, these seven tracks were only ever meant to represent "works in progress", functioning primarily as DJ tools for Magda, Troy Pierce and Richie Hawtin . However, exactly because of their "inbetween" nature, their inherent quirkiness and route one approach, the crowds have really taken to them and other DJs have been desperate to get their hands on them. The resulting carefully selected tracks contain such a wealth of unique and twisted sounds as Houle attacks each idea with verve and tenacity, constantly varying the unconventional line up of machines at his disposal. In fact, there's a vast collection of equipment on display here -- early analogue synths, sequencers and drum machines, '80s digital synths, modern Buchla synths, samplers, vocals, acoustic drums, electronic trigger pads, bass guitar -- even a VST! The result is a plethora of sound, encapsulating different styles and multi-colored dimensions as each track revolves around a musical motif that's subsequently stretched, contorted and wrenched in every direction possible. Just check out the heavily treated raw bleeps and blips that usher in the huge, filtered bass loop on "Sands," the lush analogue landscape on the fantastically titled "Meatier Shower," and the tasty electro-funk groove of "Ketchup and Beans." It all works perfectly as Houle never loses sight of the basic orthodoxes needed to make a techno track kick.

Artist:	HOULE, MARC
Title:	Drift
Label:	MINUS (CANADA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	MINUS 098CD

This is Marc Houle's first CD album for M_nus. Drift is an album of tracks inspired by the prolonged Berlin winter, and the depression, which it so often causes -- from the chill of the coldest nights felt on tracks such as "Inside" and "The Next," through to songs that encompass the frustrations of gray skies such as "Seeing In The Dark." Marc has created a season of emotions, and in doing so, put forth his own personal frustrations towards what is considered "techno" in its most basic form. Locking himself away during a winter season to fully embrace his own idealism has resulted in an album on which his rebellious nature and desire for a more experimental musical mentality has cast him further from the standard practice of the techno underworld. His grievances are at their most clear on the title track, which is an intense, and ultimately angry, techno belter produced as the winter season caused feelings less of "beauty" and more of suffocation. However, Drift is not without moments in which the sunlight peeks through the layers of heavy clouds. Tracks such as "Sweet" and "Hitcher Man" provide the audible interpretation of a person dreaming of warmer climates -- the not-so-forgotten idea of being elsewhere, with the experience of finally seeing the snow fade away and the clouds drift towards springtime skies. By the time the album reaches its finale, it's clear that Marc's winter blues have receded, as the few remaining patches of ice melt into puddles of past musical memories. A mainstay of the M_nus camp, Marc Houle has been known to push the boundaries with his output for the label, always adding tweaks and twists from analog synths, unexpected, obscure sounds, and an onslaught of vocals and playfulness. His take on electronic music is a personal sound that draws upon his early influences from industrial, retro and Detroit, along with a modern vision of path-finding techno. This latest venture for the label, although inspired by the coldest moments of the year, is undoubtedly hot as fire.

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