Browse by Label: WERK (UK)

Artist:	STACS OF STAMINA
Title:	Tivoli
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	WERK 001CD

"Bursting onto the scene like an over-inflated colostomy bag, Stacs of Stamina are the freshest, funkiest product out of Sweden since a 3-and-a-half ounce turd that Benny from Abba produced last Tuesday which finally made its way into the North Sea this morning. But forget for now the anal rectitude of Europop, this summer the Stamina boys are drunk at the wheel of a shiny new juggernaut hurtling pell-mell down the highway of music. Prepare, mere mortal, for Eurocrunk. And what is this mysterious new genre, I hear you cry? Yes, you've guessed it, it's another entirely imaginary genre of music that's taking the worldwide music scene by force. A mixture of crazy Euro lyricism and blip-hop over snazzy syncopated beats, Swedish production outfit Stacs of Stamina have here produced the definitive Eurocrunk LP of this century, and centuries to come. It's electronic hip-hop, Jim, but not as we know it. Arriving in the wake of their debut EP on Werk Discs, Mistake Rewind Repeat, Tivoli sees Stamina taking the unclaimed territory between hip-hop and electro by storm, with 11 tracks of crunked-up 8-bit hoptronica that will have even the most ascetic dullards swinging from the rafters to join in the digital love-making. And there's plenty of partner swapping on the mic, with superstars Mike Ladd and TTC adding guest vocals, as well as the latest MC 'on road,' Ears, all throwing their car keys into the bowl."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Werk One
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 001EP

"With their fingers in many pies, Werk are responsible for some of the most funked up, demented parties in the chic surroundings of London and Madrid and here, carefully select an array of unknown talent with which to launch their first assault on your record buying senses with this seriously inspired six tracker of original sh* -- none of your IDM by numbers electronic dirge or copyist crunchadelic shenanigans -- this is where it's at right now. Mixing a blend of influences from London grimey business through to Detroit beat-driven technoid re-constructions, electroid mayhem, nervously modified break mashups and padded bass-stab devastation -- marvel at the wondrous cut-ups of 'Actress' (the sound of Robocop's anaerobic workout routine on crack), 'The Byte Stripes' (a media revolution via the medium of 10/8 jungle - killer styles), 'Ben Codec' (algorhythms on toast and ash-tray muesli bezerkerisms), 'Cut Out' (genetically modified fidget-hop), 'Mr. Lizard' (made from a sample patch based on the contours of Noel Edmonds' mullet!) and 'Format.K' (tonic for the anguish of a thousand ecstasy-ravaged bird-brains) -- Werk just have it all. A record with a beginning, middle, an end and even a nervous breakdown."

Artist:	DISRUPT
Title:	Foundation Bit
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	WERK 001LP

Previously released on CD by Werk, now available as an eight track vinyl version. Probably the most talked about bass transmission of recent times, Foundation Bit is one of the finest appropriations of Jamaican dub and 8 bit dancehall to be heard anywhere for many years, claiming runner-up spot in The Wire's top 10 dub records of 2007, and catching the ears of many a discerning listener. What would happen if Yardie priests took a bitcore nerd under their wing and gave him free reign with the stereo? Jan Gleichmar aka Disrupt is among the leading pioneers of modern dub, and alongside the likes of Skream, DMZ and Burial, has created his own palette of digi-dub interpretation, harking back to the '80s era of reggae. With a slow-paced skank and a filthy, uber-bassy production style that has much in common with King Tubby, Black Ark, and On-U Sound, and a title that nods to the legendary Keith Hudson, Foundation Bit is no less than a new digi-dub classic for the future generation.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Grim FM
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	WERK 002CD

"A bumper CD mix, featuring classic and exclusive tracks from the successful Grim Dubs series of vinyl! And finally it arrives, the long awaited mix CD from the totally spannered Werk crew, well known in the London area for stealing lollipops from small children and frightening grannies on the bus. Instead of taking the simple route and releasing all the tracks on the legendary Grim Dubs series of 12"s, they have gone all out and compiled a selection of new, exclusive and classic grimey dubstep bangers. Hosted by those frightening fellers at Werk HQ, Grim FM comes to you direct from London town, complete with commercial breaks and Emcee spots from Werk's talented roster. So for an hour of bass led insanity with a hint of Benny Hill -- look no further, keep it Grim! Features tracks from Basss Clefff, Hanuman, ATK12, Starkbot Beats, Starkey, Monkey Steak, Uberdog, Ben Codec and Tersh Jetterax."

Artist:	ACTRESS
Title:	No Tricks
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 002EP

"Believe the hype. Werk is a pioneering, rough-assed, demented freestyle collective of party goers and knob-twiddlers that make a mockery of everything they've ever been taught about cool. Werk believe in grime -- though not the polished variety that seems to have attracted men in suits and shell suits across the land -- grime that messes with your head and funks up the basslines in pursuit of sheer low-end nastiness and squashed percussive jacking of the disturbing variety. Werk believe in the new funk, in urban music and in unashamed dancefloor abandon."

Artist:	LUKID
Title:	Onandon
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	WERK 003CD

"It's time to get your teenage kickdrums right through the night with the Little Lord Fauntleroy of electronica, Lukid. Weighing in with a debut album of epileptronica and hiccup-hop this prodigious talent from south London is so youthful, we've had to hastily cobble together a child protection policy just to release it. Sounding like the awkward teenage son of a civil partnership between Dabrye, Theo Parrish and Dougie Howser MD, Onandon is an unforgettable greatest hits collection of a misshapen teenage: replete with dusty loops, off-kilter riddims and unidentified clicky-clacky noises. While most teenagers struggle with cracking voices, strange bodily changes and the ever-present lure of guiltily beating themselves off to the lingerie section of the Argos catalogue, Lukid was stuck to his computer screen pleasuring himself in an entirely different manner. In fact, during sleepovers with his schoolmates, Lukid would arrive with a sampler discreetly tucked between the pages of his regulation copy of Escort, and would secretly sneak off to the toilets to edit together drum loops from obscure folk records while his friends played endless bouts of Extreme Soggy Biscuit. And while you might expect most young producers these days to be either knocking out tomytronic drill and bass or inane bop-a-long indie in regional accents, Lukid's voice is a far cry from the norm. There's a shocking maturity to the tracks which bely his youthfulness: like seeing a baby reciting Baudrillard or a chinchilla juggling swords. This is no freak sideshow for pimple-popping. Onandon is chock full of timeless instrumental slow-chug classics which might even have your Dad tapping his foot along to and remarking 'ooh, that's got a good beat.'"

Artist:	VA
Title:	Grim Dubs Volume 1: Monkey Steak
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 003EP

"Grim. Dublame. Wackstep. Different people call it different things, depending on their age, haircut or shoe size. If you listen to the music we love the chances are you probably call it something different from us. Terrible. Awful. Unlistenable. It's been the same through the 80s and 90s. We've called it so many different things that the journalists can't even be bothered even to listen now, let alone pigeon-hole it. This is a good thing -- it's music. Music that's great for hoovering to, perhaps while injecting PCP into your pancreas with a cake-icing pipe. It's instrumental dance music that's clearing dancefloors all across the UK, Croydon, Wythenshawe and King's Lynn. It's the perfect forum for anaemic doombrains with bad haircuts to create music that few people like, then earnestly brag about their revolutionary genius. That's why we here at Werk Records are calling it Grim, to try and dress up a four part set of releases as a new musical movement, outside the specialist world of ourselves and our sad little circle of friends."

Artist:	DISRUPT
Title:	Foundation Bit
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	WERK 004CD

Werk Discs presents the debut full-length release by Jan Gleichmar aka Disrupt -- curator of the wonderful Jahtari site and label imprint. Disrupt finally brings his heavy, heavy pixilated dub sounds out on Jah formats. Recent, rabid interest in dubstep and all matters sound system have laid the groundwork almost perfectly for this release, not to mention a gradual and imperceptible shift in focus for diehard '70s roots fans, learning to love the early dancehall times, before gun-talk and slackness suggested reggae might self-combust. We're now seeing this final assumption of '80s reggae into the canon. The eight-bit spasms of Casio and Atari sounds werked some alchemical magic on the mid-'80s dancehall scene, and Disrupt looks set to bring the appreciation of this style full circle with this deadly soundbwoy exterminator.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Grim Dubs Volume 2 - Uberdog/Binray
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 004EP

2nd volume, featuring: Ubergo & Binray. "An almost calm melodic bed is made for the topside: brittle minor chords seep into a bass stabbing raggafied sub bass strategy. The vocal licks lend an unmistakeably British hue to proceedings ... looped for rhythm and dynamic purposes ... the mordant intent of the Grim series is apparent once again ... deep dark subversive beats, daring to trouble audiences and worry sound systems, before gradually bringing it all together on the fours. Flip for the demented junglist assault ... cut to f*** breaks, scything bass rudeness, this is one dancehall wrecker designed for dirty late night carnage. Mentalism par excellence."

Artist:	STACS OF STAMINA
Title:	Mistake Rewind Repeat
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 005EP

"Based in London, Stockholm and Bognor Regis, Stacs are younger and fresher than a Phillipino rent-boy, and ready to burst onto the scene like a prize-winning pop-shot in a porno epic. They sidestep the usual hip hop clich�s by 'dropping rhymes' that are fatter than your mum's frontbottom, slimmer than a Tic-Tac and more fruity than a carton of Um Bongo. Having traversed Europe, engaging in a series of hip-hoperations and performing alongside TTC and Werk favorites Modeselektor, Stacs are now ready to gush their salty rhymes into your ear with astounding ferocity and vigour. Thus we are proud to present their debut EP for WerkDiscs, a six track smorgasbord of Swede-hop, Euro-rhymes and scando-grime, featuring guest vocals from Big Dada cohort Yarah Bravo and remixes by Planet Mu's Ddamage and TTC Producer, Para One."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Grim Dubs Volume 3
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 006EP

"Werk are further expanding their vision of Grim, this time embracing the breaks in no half stepping terms -- where previous scary installments have tripped the divides between hyperdub and junglism, Grim three flirts with Miami bass and advanced breakcore business, yet still manages to nail it back to the essence that is truly Grim. Splatchy bass morphs, vocal hiccups and the atmosphere is well and truly darkstyle. For the flipside, we're immersed in a breaking electroid drum bump, saturated with zipping bleeps and an almighty detonating bassline which threatens to tear the roof off the sucker, then re-tile it for you free of charge. A tune that really is so versatile, it will hurt."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Grim Dubs Volume 4
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 007EP

"Werk head back to base with this large piece of wax. The top side lays poised on top of a spluttering cough and agonizing build up, seeming to take a deceptively mid- range stance, a ghost of a ragga riddim, which threatens to fall from beneath your feet -- as a bassline rears up from beneath you, reared in the underworld, twice as ugly and mercilessly rinsed to pincer all unsuspecting listeners in its range, the definitive Grim track. Flip the script, and the series doffs its pro-celebrity Grim mask to its more celebrated but less well endowed cousin two-step, here splaying all points around what was once a hectic four-four number, the runnings are heavy once more. Grim dubs 4 real, grim dubs 4 life. Played by: Team Shadetek, Nettle, Subtext DJ's and Mack 10 - DJ for Nasty Crew and Roll Deep."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Grim Dubs Volume Five
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 008EP

"Whilst all the UK factions have been trying to work out some meaningless beef over the difference between grime and dubstep, the anonymous denizens of Grim have presided over the bickering with a distant mirth. Here the ebullient bass warble and splintered breaks which pepper the topside still stand to work wonders in the dance, whether you're standing on the floor or grappling a microphone. Iced chords round out a big special one. Flip the script for a disemboweled in-version, where the continuous flow of the low-end is infiltrated by merciless gabba agendas, and a shocking abrasive intent. In the end, its all just music, mostly with a big bottom end, one often has words and one predominantly not. Any trace of vocal here is obliterated almost completely, leaving the record an almost complete dancehall dub wrecker."

Artist:	ATKI2
Title:	Guilty Pleasures
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 009EP

"The work was steady, and eventually Atki2 built up enough money to buy a laptop and Kaos pad. He began knocking out gargantuan behemoths of tunes. Which were soon noticed by US ragga technicians Team Shadetek, on whose label he has released his material. The rest is history. From the very start, this music was destined for success. Atki2's anger manifested itself in a miasma of wobble-bottomed bass and boomshakalaka drum patterns that, once transferred onto a dancefloor environment, were so infectious they would have even the most toe-curlingly clueless Observer Music Month journalists spunking into their Matthew Williamson man-bags."

Artist:	STACS OF STAMINA
Title:	Roll/Stay Beautiful (DJ Wonder Remixes)
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 011EP

5 track EP. "Stacs of Stamina have managed to make quite a name for themselves in the past year -- on releasing their Tivoli album, a diverse blend of grime, 8-bit pop, hip hop and their self styled Euro crunk they have garnered critical praise and huge acclaim from all corners of the world. Now it's time for them to make a return with a little help from their friends. First up is a remix from someone a little special; Wonder. As Dizzee Rascal's DJ, the man Wonder has been rather busy in the last few years, but he allowed himself time to chop Stacs's 'Roll With It' into devastating pieces and come up with a mix that even surpasses the killer original. Waves of distorted bass bubble up over clipped beats that would give prime dubstepper Skream a run for his money! This is set to be one of the dancefloor grime/dubstep tracks of the year. Flip the record over for another surprise, a remix from the Euro crunk supergroup Radioclit which mangles 'Stay Beautiful' until it sounds like a Germanic anthem to quasi-legal pharmaceuticals and badly shaken cocktails."

Artist:	STARKEY
Title:	Local Headlines
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 012EP

"Following a deranged 7" on his own Slit Jockey label, this is Stakey's latest joint on the Grim-tastic Werk imprint. The earth shuddering sub bass opening the record gives little indication of the insanity spread evenly across this killer 12", but trust us it is designed for total dancefloor obliteration. In the current climate of grime, dub-step, and dub-folk (hello Various Production) Starkey takes a slightly more deranged and electronic angle with two tracks purposefully designed for the forward-thinking grime/dubstep heads and two tracks of more beautiful almost Prefuse-influenced beatplay. Although a relative newcomer to the scene, this record is hard evidence that Starkey won't be slipping through the door quietly and will not be forgotten easily. An explosive 12"!"

Artist:	DISRUPT
Title:	Tubby Rom Module/Foundation Bit
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 015EP

"London's Werk Discs have extended their international label mission far and wide for this summer, here managing to ensnare Leipzig's very own Disrupt -- curator of the wonderful Jahtari site, tempting him into finally bringing his heavy heavy pixilated dub sounds out on jah formats. Recent, rabid interest in dubstep and all matters sound system have laid the groundwork almost perfectly for this release, not to mention a gradual and imperceptible shift in focus for diehard '70s roots fans, learning to love the early dancehall times, before gun talk and slackness suggested reggae might self-combust. We're now seeing this final assumption of '80s reggae into the canon. The eight bit spasms of Casio and Atari sounds werked some alchemical magic on the mid-80s dancehall scene, and Disrupt looks set to bring the appreciation of this style full circle with a series of deadliest soundbwoy exterminating releases slated for this summer. Mighty eight bit ting a gwaan."

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Artist:	CLOAKS
Title:	Hi Tek Buzz
Label:	WERK (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	WERK 014EP