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Index of Labels
Browse by Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)


Artist: VA
Title: Von Uns: Oni.tor Label Compilation
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $15.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 001CD
"CD sampler of previous/forthcoming releases & exclusive remixes from this well-savvy Stuttgart based label. Artists herein include Hagedorn (exactly 1/2 of the Computerjockeys on Harvest, producing quite a bang), Joachim Spieth (streamlined pulse-sounds from the Kompakt stable), Checksum (sorted post-dub instrumentals from Greg Freeman & Jeff Palmer), Solovyev (Kosmische techno epics), and Varga & Baumann. As ideally eclectic as one could hope for in 77 minutes' play. Poised on greatness this label is, let me tell you." -- Hrvatski.


Artist: STOLPMANN, BJÖRN
Title: Feels Like You Are Passing Me By
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: LP
Price: $12.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 003.1LP
"Björn Stolpmann is another beautiful cat from our hometown Stuttgart. His debut album features heavy pop basses, a straight 4/4 rhythm and dreamy soundscapes. Techno with heart and mind. Another step towards more difference, showing that the city can go further. The techno underground sets sails against Stuttgarts mainstream reputation. Atomized musical partisans meet after work to think about utopia. With machines, not needed to be taken by storm. Relieved through music."


Artist: CHECKSUM
Title: From The Beginning of the World
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: LP
Price: $15.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 003LP
"Deconstructed electronic neo-dub from San Francisco. Naked, warm and personal." Played and recorded by Greg Freeman and Jeff Palmer (Pell Mell), in what could be described by morons as a "post-Chicago style". Released in collaboration with Hausmusik, an odd record, presented in rather attractive fashion.


Artist: HAGEDORN
Title: Cause & Effect
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 013EP
"Hagedorn is Wolfgang Hagedorn without Digital Jockey, i.e. outside his Computer jockeys' context. Wolfgang Hagedorn's musical background in terms of important influences stretches from Eastcoast-HipHop to Jeff Mills and has lead him to combine rational and soulful elements, resulting in a mixture of abstract functionality and the simple challenge to move your body. Even though he digs deep into the various genres of his record collection to find the right little bits n' pieces for his way of sampling, the tracks remain surprisingly homogeneous and stick to the sound idea originally intended. Hagedorn's music offers a kind of synthesis between distant listening and raving affirmation."


Artist: HAGEDORN
Title: Homegrown
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $16.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 014CD
"Hagedorn is Wolfgang Hagedorn without Digital Jockey, i.e. outside his Computerjockeys' context. Wolfgang Hagedorn's musical background in terms of important influences stretches from Eastcoast HipHop to Jeff Mills and has lead him to combine rational and soulful elements, resulting in a mixture of abstract functionality and the simple challenge to move your body. Even though he digs deep into the various genres of his record collection to find the right little bits n' pieces for his way of sampling, the tracks remain surprisingly homogeneous and stick to the sound idea originally intended. Hagedorn's music offers a kind of synthesis between distant listening and raving affirmation. Homegrown is somewhat less club-orientated than its predecessor, an aspect that may have to do with the fact that Wolfgang has been on a sort of paternity leave for more than a year now. This doesn't necessarily mean, though, that Homegrown is meant to be exclusively for home listening. There are still quite a few dancefloor tracks that would fit without doubt into a club context, namely the 12" opener 'Funk Infection' which easily bears comparison with Thomas Brinkmann's hot SoulCenter stuff. Hagedorn's new album is really quite diverse, the range of his sound is definitely spread more widely this time. He himself suggests that he could have developed a number of different concept albums out of each single track -- very ambitious words, these, but oh so true."


Artist: YOU DEE
Title: Adapter
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $16.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 015CD
"This is what the artists say: 'You Dee`s most important influence is water next to silence. Water leaking into the basin and thus proposing the measure. Sound spreading as space offers the possibility. The 'United Amateurs' make music because music just does not mean anything. There are no symbols to listen to. The ear simply is able to relax.' Nice. And poetic. But generally, we the label have to contradict. It is a coquettish lie that this music shall not mean anything. On their first album, You Dee work on the same architectonic structures as Senking, Pole, Raster Noton or System. As well as the specific sound of every single of these references is incompatible, You Dee defined their very own signals to be sent into space. You Dee`s music indeed suits for relaxing, but it is not at all Ambient that makes you fall asleep. Their music exactly is the contrary: this Ambient wants to be precisely listened to. It wants to know well read it`s 'poppige Flaechen', it`s melancholic drifts and all these tiny particles of melodies. In the end you have heard a lot -- but you are relaxed nevertheless. For whoever needs the following: You Dee is Sven Rieger, Peter Hansen and Stefan Wust from Berlin and Stuttgart."


Artist: JIRKU-JUDGE
Title: Half Full
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 016EP
"Jirku/Judge is the work of Tomas Jirku and Robin Judge; two like minded musicians from Toronto Canada. Tomas hears voices in his head that tell him to make music. The voices are susceptible to boredom, so the variety to Tomas's musical output is necessary to satisfy them. Robin hears music in everything; a refrigerator humming a chorus, the wind whistling, birds glitching, bicycles clicking. She spends her time recording these sounds. Together their insanity combines to make catchy, swinging, glitch-laden music which is sure to make you wiggle."


Artist: DITHERS/JOHNNY LARUE, SID
Title: The Second City EP
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 020EP
"And here we go: please welcome Mr. Mike Shannon on Onitor. By his side is another Canadian techno superstar: Jeff Milligan (aka Johnny Larue aka Algorithm), Shannon's Revolver label partner. Revolver -- also as great techno label which releases we appreciate a lot. A split-EP. 4 tracks which are as good as the last releases of the Toronto boys. Shannon should be known from his last year's release on Force Inc. Music Works, the Frankfurt based techno über label. Slight Of Hand, his debut album, had some great funky rocking techno tracks to spin. On one hand very minimal, on the other as maximal as you could get within the genre borders. Definitely in your face. Jeff Milligan already released on the German label Background, which is based in Düsseldorf. His tracks symbolize the ice age in our small minimal world. Very complex mathematic style -- but still danceable."


Artist: LAMAS, GUSTAVO
Title: Lejos
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 021EP
"Gustavo Lamas cultivates a melancholic techno-soul. And not just since yesterday. He did a track for the critically acclaimed compilation Elektronische Musik Aus Buenos Aires (on Colognes Traum label), and he was the first of the featured artist to release a complete solo album shortly after. 'Celeste' embodies influences from almost opposite cultures. More releases for Traum and Kompakt followed. Now however Gustavo has found a new home at Onitor records -- and we feel very proud."


Artist: VA
Title: Politronics
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $16.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 024CD
"With Politronics onitor tries to give an empiric impression of something discussed in the media since 2001 as the re-politicism of music. By choosing the artists for this compilation the premier musical field was electronic music -- not as a matter of fact that we do see guitar music as an old paradigma, this is just a result of the general orientation of our label: Onitor is known since 1999 as a label dedicated to electronic music in its several playgrounds. It is very important for us to show how big the variety in the field of political electronic music is. The same variety is recognizable the way they include politics in their work." Artists: Schneider TM remixing Pulseprogramming, agf, Gudrun Gut / Thomas Fehlmann, Lawrence, Pawel, Scanner, Radio Boy, Mouse on Mars, Terre Thaemlitz, V/VM, Schorsch Kamerun, Milch, Stella.


Artist: DUPLEX 100
Title: Shooting Star
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 025EP
"Duplex 100 are Phil Stumpf and Sam Rouanet. Since 1999, they are working together as DJs and producer -- since then they have managed to become one of the most renowned French duos, very influential for the Parisian minimal house scene. Their sets and tracks are funky minimalism par excellence. Duplex 100 are not only the resident DJs of the Nouveau Casino in Paris, they are also hosting a night called: Minimal Dancin. Within the last two years they invited a lot of artists from the German minimal house scene: people like Antonelli Electr., Benjamin Wild, Falko Brocksieper, T.Raumschmiere, Gebr. Teichmann, Sascha Funke, Oh., The Modernist -- as well as lots of international guests: Jeff Milligan, Jeremy P. Caulfield, Metro Area, Readymade FC, Swayzak, and lots more."


Artist: VA
Title: Pigeon Funk Remixed
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 2LP
Price: $18.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 026LP
"Pigeon Funk Remixed comes not only with brand new remixes of the EP-material (by Ark, Carsten Aermes, Joachim Spieth, Napoli Is Not Nepal, Solovyev / Watson Mcletus, Wobbly), it also includes new tracks by Safety Scissors and Sutekh. When people share a flat you never know what can happen. There's one flat in California however, out of which two of the most advanced laptop musicians have emerged: Safety Scissors and Sutekh, a.k.a. Matthew Patterson Curry and Seth Horvitz. Safety Scissors has released many great tracks in the last couple of years which have been put out on labels such as Plug Research, Context and Cytrax. Sutekh with his own label Context represents the vivid powerbook scene of the west coast Bay Area. Luckily their brilliant music is easy to find around these parts thanks to the active distribution policy of Force Inc. Seth's production efforts cover a wide range of different musical approaches: deconstructive and abstract, broken up and funky, dubby and minimal-housy, energetic and technoid. Nothing´s impossible. Everything´s euphoric."


Artist: PIGEON FUNK
Title: Proptronix Presents
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $17.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 027CD
Co-release between Onitor and Proptronix. Pigeon Funk = Kit Clayton, Sutekh and Safety Scissors. "Scattered in the streets, seeming to wander aimlessly, pigeons populate every city in the world; and as they possess the element of surprise and the advantage of flight, humans may be in danger; these commonly disregarded street fowl have been cleverly conspiring world domination. Recent discoveries reveal that Kit Clayton, Sutekh and Safety Scissors are in cahoots with the special species of bird. Now released to the public are all the bird-brained schemes these boys came up with to aid the ornithologic overtake. This CD recollects vinyl only releases on Proptronix and Onitor, cacophonous quibbles and quarrels previously suppressed to the DJ underground. It compiles material from the very first Proptronix EP, and Onitor releases. Initially masked and marketed as innocent dance music for pigeons, the audio is in fact a subversive assortment of electronics; beak bobbing techno to talon thrashing electro to feather fluffing noise, the music is engineered for dancing, sitting or any sort of intermediary poise between. Similar to a bird with its simple nervous system, the music has a hard time sitting still while perched up high on a telephone wire. San Franciscans Kit, Sutekh and Safety are each known for demonstrating their own dynamic range on a range of labels including Context, Orthlorng, Plug Research, Scape~, and Force Inc. and another aviary ally, Wobbly (of Tigerbeat 6 fame and frequent People Like Us collaborator) appears with a remix of your bird last year. two videos appear on the CD as Quicktime movies: a magical illustration of 'Mocito' by Ruben Fleischer, who has made music videos for Gold Chains, Ellen Allien, and DJ Format, and a narrative about two jailbirds set to fly the coop from Luis Briceno of Metronomic, creator of videos for Console and Notwist. Pigeon Funk will land on your head and the boy/bird band just might best the humans after all."


Artist: STAVOSTRAND & SKUGGE
Title: Rheinsberger EP
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $10.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 028EP
"Minimal and Mitek sounds not only great together, it really belongs together. Label owner Mikael Stävöstrand has managed within the last years to establish himself in the centre of the minimal genre as an important key player -- and the best: it happened in a very subtle and decent way. Besides his releases for labels like Force Inc and Mille Plateaux his own label imprint Mitek was the most impressive argument on this way. Not only we Onitor guys are fans now. Everybody loves the sympathetic Swedish folks. As a matter of the fact that Stävöstrand is now living in Germany it was only a question of time until we meet up and decide a special collaboration. And here we go: Stävöstrand and his label act and best buddy Johan Skugge join Onitor -- at least for an EP. How great is this? And the music is for sure even much greater than the single news. An amazing 4-tracker. Nice dubby minimal tracks, which sound very dry on the first impression, but are really clubby in their deep clicks´n'frickel style -- music you know from old Basic Channel records. Not to miss: this special warm feeling within the music and these significant melodies. All listeners realize pretty soon: these two know exactly which sound they love and want to produce."


Artist: ESTORNEL
Title: Pusher
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 029EP
"This name -- sounding like an oil company (an association which comes easily up cause the two of them are from George Bush Senior & Jr. country Dallas) -- describes the producer symbiose of Bernhard Pucher and Eric 'Maetrik' Estornel. As a result of this combination it is no wonder that the tracks on this EP sound different to the 'normal' Maetrik tracks: what does not mean that the bassline is not also catching your legs immediately, shake you wild and heavy with its weird cut-up-sound -- at the same time dubby-minimal and poppy like hell. These tracks want all of you. If Estornel is a child of the minimal generation, got techhouse tattooed on his arm, the strings of Detroit techno always in his pocket and pop always in his head, Pucher is willing to bring up some heavy distortion in the project: you can easily hear early industrial moments and the wisdom of noise as a result of his presence. The additional remix to this EP comes from Stuttgart producer and Onitor darling Björn Stolpmann."


Artist: WADA, TAKASHI
Title: Meguro
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $16.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 030CD
"If there is a specific person (besides the genre grounding Kompakt people) the genre pop-ambient is made for than this 21years old Japanese wonder boy. Wada's fingers just wanna play. They flow over the keyboard / piano, they feel the world on the topic of this instrument, they understand the world in this micro-cosmos and manage to create a magic, very own interpretation of the big picture, with all its beauty and clearness. Electronic music is mainly based on a learning by doing wisdom and the principle 'happening by accident'. Wada is no member of this school. In his world the significant melodies and harmonies are intuitive, inspired, but over all they base on knowledge. A lot of theoretical knowledge. Knowledge on the effects of music on its listeners. A brief story of his life: born in Fukushima Japan, he was mainly living and being socialized in Tokyo. When he was 16 he started a world tour in the name of music. First he studied jazz guitar, Bossanova and music theory in New York. When he was 19 he moved to Paris for university -- with a short London interruption --, where he studies classic piano, still jazz guitar and for sure French and all the bohemian life style between cafe au lait and Louvre. Wada's music is very much influenced by space, architecture, city, land scape, animals, people and the sound of living, the sound which comes out naturally. He listens to any kind of music. He likes the sound of the piano overall. Wada feels and interprets our modern world. These interpretations were never released before. Onitor is happy and proud to release the debut album of this amazing musician. We all will have a lot of great moments with Wada's brilliant compositions in the future. Word."


Artist: GRINGO GRINDER
Title: Breakfast Included
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $16.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 031CD
"Oh! Canada. ...once again. How intense the relationship between Onitor and the so called '51 state of America' (the Americans just include them as another state so that their fear of the Canadians intellect can be closely monitored by Big Brother) is, inspired by the beautiful electronic music movement of Canada. It's made obvious: Tomas Jirku, Robin Judge, Mike Shannon, Jeff Milligan, Crackhaus (Deadbeat & Stephen Beaupre), all of them are now in our haus. And now Shelbono 'Barracuda' del Monte. Better known as minimal-hedonist Pan/Tone...or as it says on his passport: Sidney Sheldon Lerock. From now on in the Onitor cosmos he is called Gringo Grinder (this pseudonym appeared first as a track title on a Revolver EP Quien es su Papa, Mama Fina?). But that was from another time. He finally rid himself of all the barriers of his earlier stock broker lifestyle. So at 30, he did decide to quit his safe existence, take the risk of the unsure. Yes...we all should fight against the safe existence. Shelbono has dug deep within and Gringo Grinder is who he found to reflect is true nature. Nothing is more dangerous than the early still stance as a result of angst). His mission is to rock without any borders. Most importantly with a whiskey in his hand and in a smoke filled club. Favourite place: on stage. Everybody gets sweet to his electro-influenced techno- sex monsters that he has unleashed upon us and so we dance away the night in pleasure. If there is no tomorrow, only today will know better."


Artist: GRINGO GRINDER
Title: Stiletto Rock
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 032EP
"Some more tracks for a 12", which will also feature remixes by his buddies Ada Und and Jake Fairley. We didn't feel this sweet since our last breakfast in bed. This is the soundtrack for a hot night in the red light district of Tokyo."


Artist: GRINGO GRINDER
Title: The Missing Track EP
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 033EP
"The second EP of the Gringo Grinder album Breakfast Included is concentrating all attention on the vocal tracks of the record. These vocal tracks are from such well sounding names as Ada and Amy Fletcher. As a bonus you get one of the hits of the album, the solid rocking 'Dirty Deeds', and 'Stiletto Rock', the missing track of the CD, which the artist lost somehow while mastering the record. Shit happens."


Artist: STOLPMANN
Title: Disappointments Require Expectations
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 035EP
"After his debut album Feels Like You are Passing By and the two EPs Draw Away From the Attempt and Aberration of Intention the fourth Onitor-release from Stuttgart based Björn Stolpmann. Here you get three typical (and great) tracks of Stolpmann, somewhere in the dubby-technoid mixland of Modernist, Antonelli Electr. And Detroit techno as established by Robert Hood; a mix of digital, minimal and pop. And as a bonus: a blasting remix of Cologne based Misc. -- you know and love them from their Sender releases."


Artist: LAMAS, GUSTAVO
Title: Seguimos
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 036EP
"The importance of typically European sounds in Lamas' sampling (samplers are his only tools) can't be overstressed, yet his South American roots will always shine through. With his very personal musical coordinates he creates a surreal tension and projection of space that seems to have materialized out of some parallel universe: that's what we mean when we say 'Music for a Different Reality'. Lamas gets his main input from dub and techno -- a combination that is typical for labels in Berlin, such as Basic Channel or Scape. With 'Celeste' he sought a new perspective oscillating between the excitement of South American percussion eroticism and a rather European soberness of sound. A fascinating hybrid of minimal electronica and sound research. Lamas' work stands for melancholy, devotion and self-restraint."


Artist: SKUGGE/STAVOSTRAND
Title: Angel
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $9.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 038EP
"Minimal and Mitek sounds not only great together, it really belongs together -- does not mean that the system of these Swedish producers is limited to minimal, in deed they are far away from dogmatism and genre-fixes -- they also like it hot and sweaty when producing their tracks. The result of their straight work: an album (and two EPs) even much more intense than the Rheinsberger EP. The tracks come with a huge variety. They are hectic, but still they find their balance to go straight enough to get your booty on the dance floor. You find the often dropped academic dance floor in these tunes, but in a never before experienced hedonistic way. Their compositions lacks all kinds of traditional structure, instead they use an ever going flow of small (and big) changes and developments which takes the songs to unexpected levels, and turns, and flips, and up and down and back again... Very fluffy. Imagine a supergroupset -- up with Detroit legends like Anthony 'Shake' Shakir and now-a-days-cut-and-twist-houser Herbert -- and you get an impression how the new tracks of Stavöstrand and Skugge sound like."


Artist: SKUGGE/STAVOSTRAND
Title: Humla
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $14.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 039CD
This is Swedish producers Johan Skugge and Mikael Stavöstrand's fourth release on Onitor. Minimal and Mitek sounds not only great together, it really belongs together. It does not mean that the system of these Swedish producers is limited to minimal -- they also like it hot and sweaty when producing their tracks. Stavöstrand has managed within the last year to establish himself in the genre as an important key player with releases for labels like Force Inc. and Mille Plateaux. His clear and magnifying vision of techno, spiced with electronica and arty-moments makes everybody fall in love. Last spring saw the release of an amazing dubby and minimal collaboration between Stavöstrand and Skugge, which cemented the duo as a successful and melodically dance-oriented pair. This time around, the tracks come in a huge variety. Humla is hectic, but still finds its balance enough to head straight for the dance floor. These are academic and structured dance tunes, with flashes of deconstructed hedonism, as Skugge and Stavöstrand utilize a never-ending flow of changes and developments which take the songs to unexpected levels, turns and flips. Imagine a supergroup set-up with Detroit legends like Anthony "Shake" Shakir and now-a-days-cut-and-twist-houser Herbert -- and you get an impression of what this new offering from Stavöstrand and Skugge sounds like.


Artist: SOLOVYEV
Title: Sonoplex
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $8.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 040EP
Onitor's long-awaited 40th release is brought to you by Solovyev (aka Jörg Koch), who is also the founder and co-owner of the label Onitor. Featuring four tracks in full stereo, with weird soundscapes, bass drums and some nice chords in between. It has guitars on it and very complicated sound presets are used, although you won't be bothered by them. It has a very convenient, pleasant atmosphere, combining style with elegance. Featuring a remix by Bjorn Stolpmann, this a must-have.


Artist: SKUGGE/STAVOSTRAND
Title: Gräns
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $8.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 041EP
Another fantastic collaboration between Swedish producers Mikael Stavöstrand and his buddy Johan Skugge. Hectic, hot and sweaty tracks depart from their more subtle minimalism, embracing unexpected dancefloor structures. Think Detroit, think Anthony 'Shake' Shakir. Minimal and Mitek never sounded so good together.


Artist: YOU DEE
Title: Through the Tulips
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $14.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 043CD
You Dee is Sven Rieger, Peter Hansen and Stefan Wust from Berlin and Stuttgart. Formed in 1997, the group's original purpose was to create really un-beautiful graffiti art. A collective switch to the true art form of ambient, experimental music resulted in the 2000 debut of their album Adapter, on Onitor records. As a concept, the members of You Dee individually identified themselves within certain prescribed roles of various dilettantism: Hansen the bio-chemistrian, Rieger the art student/theater painter and Wust the librarian were always changing their position within the band. These varied roles defined their music with a very naive, child-like bent, full of dreamy melodies and breakable sound that completed their ideology. When asked about their musical influences, You Dee concluded "...everything that contains noise!" Besides that, the '80s were influential to their work -- the '80s of Atonal Festival and early electronic composition. Striving toward the Morton Feldman concept of "sound and its shadow," You Dee builds their musical constructions much in the same way architecture designs big buildings, and as much in the same vein as previous big sonic giants Senking, Pole, Raster Noton or System. Deeply repetitious blocks of swash and sound churn behind more microscopic ticks. Swaying sampled melody is hidden behind truly chill clap tracks. Jazz snares pair with a picked guitar. An accordion hides behind a throbbing keyboard drone. On Through the Tulips pleasing parts of sounds find their way to the ear without any mark or definition.


Artist: JIRKU-JUDGE
Title: Watching You
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $8.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 044EP
Jirku-Judge is the work of Tomas Jirku and Robin Judge; two like-minded musicians from Toronto, Canada. In their musical experiments, intricate rhythms are woven together into a unique style that is equally comfortable in exploring playful ambience as it is making excursions into swinging percussive funk. The 12" Watching You aims straight towards the dance floor. Between Judge's carefully-focused scenarios that explore subtle rhythms and textures, and Jirku's unrelenting, unpredictable techno explorations, lies a comfortable, diverse partnership of carefully-considered glitch and liberally-measured dancesteps.


Artist: JIRKU-JUDGE
Title: Private Eyes
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $14.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 045CD
Private Eyes is the work of Toronto-based Tomas Jirku and Robin Judge, and it is their fourth release on Onitor. The music on Private Eyes occupies the space between dancefloor and listening music. There is a definite balance between the two worlds, yet at times it delves deep into either one or the other. In their musical experiments, intricate rhythms are woven together into a unique style that is equally comfortable in exploring playful ambience as it is making excursions into swinging percussive funk. Bouncing clicks, tonal techno thuds, and minimal beats cleanly combine with small melodic tones and deep growls to create a satisfyingly old-school experience.


Artist: VA
Title: Stadtmusik Köln
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $8.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 046EP
Onitor's Stadtmusik-Serial presents the music of Köln in their series which promotes electronic musicians from different cities by introducing them as a part of their local scene. Some of the cities in past editions of the series include Buenos Aires, Toronto, Stuttgart and Cologne. On each EP there is a mix of four new and well-established artists all from the same city, and from Köln you'll find Ada + Metope, Salz, Martiniq Breithbarth and April. After releasing four of these EPs there will be a CD release including all 16 titles. Enjoy the sound of some of the most amazing cities on the electronic world map right now.


Artist: VA
Title: Stadtmusik Toronto
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 12"
Price: $8.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 048EP
Onitor's Stadtmusik presents the music of Toronto in their series which promotes electronic musicians from different cities by introducing them as a part of their local scene. Some of the cities in other editions of the series include Buenos Aires, Stuttgart and Cologne. On each EP there is a mix of four new and well-established artists all from the same city, and from Toronto you'll find Mike Shannon, Adam Marshall, Matt Thibbideau and Jeff Miligan. Toronto is the hometown of the new Canadian minimalism. After releasing four of these EPs there will be a CD release including all 16 titles.


Artist: GUITAR
Title: Tokyo
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $14.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 051CD
The third album by Germany's guitar-devoted Guitar (Michael Lückner, Digital Jockey / Computerjockeys) with the voice of Ayako Akashiba. After the My Bloody Valentine-inspired Sunkissed (on Morr Music) in 2002 and the Japan-only release Honeysky featuring country music guitars and bluegrass banjo hillbilly attacks, Tokyo offers the sound of koto and pipa guitars and is a wonderful homage to the city of Tokyo. Guitars has always been about guitars: layering, cutting out original guitar sounds, duplicating them, modifying them and giving them a new shape. The new CD Tokyo reflects traditional Japanese music, and also the unfamiliar atmosphere a city like Tokyo might present to Europeans at a first glance. Tokyo is built up around the magnifying voice of Ayako Akashiba -- a voice you may know from a track on the Computerjockeys album Plankton and from Sunkissed. Tokyo is a perfect mixture of western pop music, eastern spirituality, impressions of the lively and pulsing Megacity Tokyo and the deep love for music, atmosphere and melodies Lückner and Akashiba do share.


Artist: WADA, TAKASHI
Title: Araki
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $14.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 052CD
This is Japan-based Takashi Wada's second full-length release on Onitor. His debut Meguro, was dedicated to pure pop ambient, deep and satisfying. This time around on Araki, Wada eschews the laptop performance in favor of playing guitar, piano and trumpet, but the conceptual basis remains the same: architecture, metropolis, landscapes, animals, humans and daily sounds. In opposition to his previous release, where he explored the pure transport of feelings, this time he aims a step higher, targeting self-realization. The album feels like unworked wood -- raw and rough, completely separate from its reformation into a usable human material. As a result he did not leave so much free space in this album -- every second is filled with sounds. Wada's process is full of references: jazz, art-rock, avant-garde as well as simple electronic tones. With this album, Wada manages to combine the past and future of electronic music into one concept without losing the status quo of our times. Araki is, all at once, a small bar club in New York in the late '60s, with Miles Davis performing, the Can studio in Cologne in the mid '70s, the disillusioned Sheffield of the '80s with the soundtrack of Warp, the hip-but-fucked-up post-Wall Berlin of the early '90s, as well as the pop academy of 2006 and the congress of future 2030.


Artist: KILO
Title: Kilo
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $14.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 053CD
Kilo are Austrians Florian Bogner and Markus Urban, and this is their second full-length release on Onitor after 2004's "folktronic" Augarten release. As much as their music was located in the center of this newly-proclaimed genre, it also insisted on being different. Kilo produce electronic music which deals with patterns specific to the genre, which examines them in order to deconstruct them -- resulting in a complex, uncategorizably organic sound. Compared to Augarten, the music on this release is much more fragile: aside from the guitars and the clicks and the cuts, there are new sound elements creating musical intensity through denseness. Within the minimal genre, Kilo manage to wrassle the density into something that sounds like Robert Wyatt, Kai Althoff's workshop, or the New York no wave sound of the late '70s at the gateway between Brian Eno and DNA. This release is inspired by an amalgam of techno, house, free-jazz, rock, ambient and tape-music, and the pieces were built out of improvisation, even during the production process. Urban and Bogner usually work with artifacts of free improvisation, putting tiny little pieces together and making new connections by inviting guest musicians to try their hand at modification. For this release, Kilo invited musicians (double bass, trumpet, horns) from the Klangforum Wien for guest appearances. The combination of all these exciting elements can be heard on Kilo.


Artist: VA
Title: Stadtmusik: Köln -- Buenos Aires -- Toronto -- Stuttgart
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: 2CD
Price: $18.00
Catalog #: ONITOR 054CD
The aim of Onitor's Stadtmusik series is to introduce some of the hottest artists from some of the hottest cities out there. Stadtmusik was initially a series of four EPs, each presenting four tracks from four different artists who best represent the latest in their urban electronic specializations. This special series has already seen the release of music from Cologne (ONITOR 046EP), Buenos Aires (ONITOR 047EP), Toronto (ONITOR 048EP) and Stuttgart (ONITOR 049EP). These four releases are now all available on this specially-priced 2CD -- plus tracks not included on the EPs. Cologne and Stuttgart, the home towns of the two Onitor owners Thomas Venker and Jörg Koch, was the conceptual home-base of this project. They were able to extend their hand of musical friendship to choose new talents neither of them had worked with before and came up with their own musical map. Buenos Aires has its own typical sound, a mix of European techno influences and South American traditional flavor, Toronto is the hometown of the new Canadian minimalism, and the sound of Cologne is familiar, traditional and unmistakable. But Onitor is happy to present some side-ways you might have not experienced yet. Stuttgart, this very relaxed southern German town, shows that living in the shadow of bigger cities isn't the worst thing in the world, because you find the silence to produce a sound of uniqueness and simplicity -- and make the city a part of the land map of electronic music. Stadtmusik -- cartography can be so nice. Artists include: Ada + Metope, Salz, Breitbarth + Martiniq, April, Hagedorn, Nico Purman, Gustavo Lamas, Marcelo Fabian, Distel, Gustavo Lamas, Mike Shannon, Adam Marshall, Matt Thibbideau, Jeff Miligan, Rework, Solovyev, Bjoern Stolpmann and Zbikbeat.


Artist: GUITAR
Title: Dealin with Signal and Noise
Label: ONITOR (GERMANY)
Format: CD
Price: $14.50
Catalog #: ONITOR 055CD
Dealin with Signal and Noise is the fourth full-length album by Germany's Michael Lückner (aka Guitar, Digital Jockey), and his second for the Onitor label. On four tracks of the album he cooperates with the Japanese singer Ayako Akashiba (who also worked with him on 2006's Tokyo), and on three tracks he works with the Seattle-based guitar band Voyager One. A decided departure from Tokyo, with its serene koto plunkings and meditative pauses, Guitar has now decided to go the opposite direction into a psychedelic sea-of-guitars sound. Dealin with Signal and Noise is wilder, heavier -- and between the storm of noise and feedback you can hear sirens. But don't be afraid, the fishers around will not be killed and this storm, too, will pass.

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