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2LP
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OSTGUT 032LP
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2023 repress; double LP version. "We all dance away our lives to the tune of the sovereign pleasure-pain axis." --David Pearce, The Hedonistic Imperative
Pleasure-seeking and pain-avoidance as a rave metaphor fits the music of Sam Barker. The Berghain resident and Leisure System co-founder has spent the last few years exploring the euphoric potential of altering key variables in dance music formulas. This was especially true on his 2018 Ostgut Ton debut EP Debiasing (OSTGUT 112EP), which was flush with unconventional rhythmic chord stabs, melody, and percussion but devoid of kickdrums. What seemed like an experimental exercise on paper was in reality equally geared towards the club: tracks that worked for the floor but resisted the genre categorizations that kick drums often provide. This has come to define Barker's sound. Now, on his debut solo album Utility, Barker turns his focus toward melding experimentation and dancefloor pragmatism with the psychology behind the musical decision-making process. In his own words: "After Debiasing it occurred to me that my musical decisions were often unintentionally utilitarian, following an instinct to maximize pleasure in one way or another. It's sort of unfashionable to admit, but by removing elements that have strong genre associations, this became a natural consequence." Accordingly, Utility is a playful but non-ironic musical approach to a whole spectrum of utilitarian and transhumanist ideas: from models for quantifying pleasure and "gradients of bliss" to abolishing suffering for sentient beings (not just people) through the ethical use of drugs and nanotechnology. Over nine tracks, Barker's vision ebbs-and-flows through waves of deeply psychedelic musical vignettes; free-floating and futuristic melodies and rhythms as targeted brain stimulation. The sound draws heavily on modular synthesis, as well as self-built mechanical instruments and plate reverbs to create atmospheres that are at once alien and emotionally recognizable, functional, and utopian. Utility is by no means a concept album. Instead, it is an honest take on music as both pleasure-maximizer and consciousness-expander.
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CD
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OSTGUT 046CD
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"We all dance away our lives to the tune of the sovereign pleasure-pain axis." --David Pearce, The Hedonistic Imperative
Pleasure-seeking and pain-avoidance as a rave metaphor fits the music of Sam Barker. The Berghain resident and Leisure System co-founder has spent the last few years exploring the euphoric potential of altering key variables in dance music formulas. This was especially true on his 2018 Ostgut Ton debut EP Debiasing (OSTGUT 112EP), which was flush with unconventional rhythmic chord stabs, melody, and percussion but devoid of kickdrums. What seemed like an experimental exercise on paper was in reality equally geared towards the club: tracks that worked for the floor but resisted the genre categorizations that kick drums often provide. This has come to define Barker's sound. Now, on his debut solo album Utility, Barker turns his focus toward melding experimentation and dancefloor pragmatism with the psychology behind the musical decision-making process. In his own words: "After Debiasing it occurred to me that my musical decisions were often unintentionally utilitarian, following an instinct to maximize pleasure in one way or another. It's sort of unfashionable to admit, but by removing elements that have strong genre associations, this became a natural consequence." Accordingly, Utility is a playful but non-ironic musical approach to a whole spectrum of utilitarian and transhumanist ideas: from models for quantifying pleasure and "gradients of bliss" to abolishing suffering for sentient beings (not just people) through the ethical use of drugs and nanotechnology. Over nine tracks, Barker's vision ebbs-and-flows through waves of deeply psychedelic musical vignettes; free-floating and futuristic melodies and rhythms as targeted brain stimulation. The sound draws heavily on modular synthesis, as well as self-built mechanical instruments and plate reverbs to create atmospheres that are at once alien and emotionally recognizable, functional, and utopian. Utility is by no means a concept album. Instead, it is an honest take on music as both pleasure-maximizer and consciousness-expander.
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12"
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OSTGUT 112EP
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Barker makes his solo debut on Ostgut Ton with a new experimental dancefloor EP. On Debiasing, he takes a hard look at the musical elements often considered necessary to maintain dancefloor momentum, with four distinct tracks of morphing synth stabs and paired down metronomic rhythms in varying time signatures. While there is no kick, snare, or clap to be heard, the result is not experimental techno deconstructions but driving, hypnotic and unlikely dancefloor tools. Inspired by the psychology underpinning relationships between producer/DJ and audience, Debiasing is an exercise in creating alternative paths within a techno framework.
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12"
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LSR 003EP
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Leisure System, the collective, label and famed Berghain club night, is back with their third release from co-founder and resident, Sam Barker. For this solo EP, mastered by Pole, Barker presents a creative lesson in diversity. "Like An Animal" builds and builds, quickly changing course and mutating into a percussive, texturized melting pot of sounds. "I Feel" is filled with moody pads and syncopated breakbeat rhythms, paving the way for the smooth half-step rhythm of "Hot Lover." Housed in a deluxe die-cut jacket.
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