Browse by Artist: ZILSKE, HOLGER

Artist:	ZILSKE, HOLGER
Title:	Enduro Disko
Label:	LEENA (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	LEENA 001EP

"The winds of fortune have been good to Berlin's Mobilee label. In just two years and more than two dozen releases, Mobilee has established itself as an essential fixture among purveyors of advanced electronic dance music and a bulwark against the scene's steady downpour of soundalike records. Today Mobilee announces a new venture. To the leeward side of Mobilee lies Leena, established as a refuge for those like-minded souls blown Mobilee's way from places far afield. Leena gives Mobilee the freedom to work together with friends from the scene and with artists it has long respected, with no regard for sound, style or musical boundaries. To cut a long story short: Leena is Mobilee's outlet for guest appearances only! Leena 01 comes courtesy Holger Zilske, better known as the asteroid-zapping Smash TV, and the two tunes may surprise listeners expecting more of his brash, melodic dramatics. 'Enduro Disko' is a creepy-crawly portrait of suspended animation. A shuffling, succubus-like beat grips the head, starts it nodding, and slowly works its fingers down to hips, knees and feet. Slippery legato keys grease the mind with questionable intentions, and a seasick siren's call corkscrews its way deep into the dancer's soul. 'Aura' is no less possessed, reconfiguring classic deep house cadences into a horror-movie score filled with creaky floorboards and telltale hearts. Still, its lightness of touch -- delicate staccato arpeggios, tip-toeing syncopations -- keeps it from slipping into the gloom. It's simply a groover for those who like to flirt with the dark side, a sly smile that disappears into a Cheshire grin as the needle runs out."

Artist:	ZILSKE, HOLGER
Title:	Holz
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	PLAY 025CD

This is the debut full-length release by Berlin's Holger Zilske (aka Smash TV) for the Playhouse label. A leading proponent in the ascendancy of the BPitch Control label and the greater electronic landscape, Holger has cultivated his reputation as a techno visionary under the moniker Smash TV with over 8 years and nearly 30 releases to his name. Since then, Holger's distinct blend of complex arrangements and gargantuan bass lines has been refined incrementally. With ten productions laden with bubbling textures, sweat-fueled percussion and tropical artwork, Holz navigates us into summer climates with moist palms and deep, deep eyes. "Lichterfelde" transforms remote boroughs of Berlin into ecstatic wildernesses populated by looming insectoid tones and gusts of humid pad textures. Punctuated by stabbed Eastern melodies, bouncing bass drops and ritual drum patterns, the opener sets the climate perfectly. "Mes Yeux" pulses amidst decompressing pads and reverberant mechanical samples in a deep house descent, while the hazy beginnings of "Roter Rausch" swarm around steadily enveloping synth and bass progressions in an intoxicating techno mirage. Deep and penetrating synth tones define "Druckraum," which probes meticulously with lazy, clicked percussion and the distant chatter of echoing beats. "Work" commands your obedience with mesmerizing melodic passages and dystopian, metallic percussive accents. "Golden" builds a lazy pop lullaby with decaying samples, trickled percussion and the dulcet vocal contributions of Swedish artist, August Landelius. "Metrodancer" builds a formidable house strut with poked bass and melodic punches of 8-bit synth. In a similar vein, "Olho Gordo" plunges into dark waters with ghostly pads, dry percussive tones and enveloping beats to test your after-hour stamina. Under the pseudonym One Chef, August Landelius returns to team up with Holger on "Have A Cup Of This," which disorients with clattering percussion and certifiably dizzy synth lines that dance around plunging bass tones and ringing symbol rotations. Counting to close with resonant, clocked percussion, August reintroduces his intimate vocal reflections in another downbeat pop arrangement, "To Them To Me," providing the perfect soundtrack to the end of an evening, and an appropriate end to an album that signals a new dawn for Holger Zilske.

Artist:	ZILSKE, HOLGER
Title:	Mes Yeux
Label:	PLAYHOUSE (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	PLAY 153EP

Holger Zilske presents two tracks off the full-length, Holz. "Mes Yeux" begins with melancholy dub, but raises within minutes into such a deep, psychedelic disco-epic, that you can't stop yourself from asking: "When the hell was the last time a track took me on a trip like this?" "Mes Yeux" is the kind of tune that puts a knowing, bright smile on faces while others immediately rush the DJ booth to ask where the fuck they can get this record.

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