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12"
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DRONE 022EP
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Container is the solo project of American-born, London-based musician Ren Schofield, who over the last decade has refined a signature sound combining his background in drumming and lo-fi noise with techno and rhythmic electronics, cementing himself as a distinctive and disorderly force in modern electronic music. "My intentions and goals for this record were to make it way more 'rock' oriented than 'techno', almost as if it could be a band or adapted by one (albeit a rather non-traditional one), and I wanted to incorporate some potentially awkward sounding time signatures, but do my best to disguise them as something digestible and not without a groove."
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CD
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ALT 052CD
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Container is the project of American noise veteran Ren Schofield, originally from Providence, Rhode Island, and now based in London. Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools -- run by old friend John Elliott of the band Emeralds -- took the punt to release his debut LP, a collection of mutated techno tracks simply titled LP (SP 007LP). The record gained attention quickly in the electronic music scene largely thanks to Schofield's unique production style that separates him from forms of conventional dance music. Whilst the music of Container sits perfectly fine within dance music, years on the US noise circuit have given Schofield's brand of techno a rawness and direct intensity that stands out in the club and crosses over into other sub-sections of the underground. His modest set up of Roland MC-909, a four-track porta studio and an array of pedals allowed him to hone his scuzzy and bewildering beat music over the years, leading to three more well-received, and literally titled, LP's. Over this time period Container also released some EPs on Morphine, Liberation Technologies, and Diagonal, did a variety of remixes for acts like Four Tet, The Body, Panda Bear, and Fucked Up, plus maintained a healthy touring schedule that reached over every continent. Almost a decade since his debut, Container arrives on Alter with his first non-LP titled album called Scramblers. The title taken from both a Baltimore street drug and a Rhode Island Diner he used to eat at with his father. Schofield elaborates: "The juxtaposition between these two Scramblers is a great one. I wanted to pay homage to a nice name that lends itself to both depraved and wholesome contexts and do my part to carry on the tradition." The eight tracks have their origins in live performance and a more high-octane delivery is noticeable when compared with previous Container albums. "Mottle" sits in a mysterious zone between the productions of EVOL and early Ruff Sqwad. Fierce electro cuts like "Trench" and "Nozzle" work alongside the nauseous slink of "Duster", which in typical Container fashion morphs into a frenzy in no time. A frenzy which may be linked cosmically to the fact that Scramblers was recorded, mixed, and mastered in one day, reinforcing further his unorthodox and fun approach to club music. CD packaged in mini LP style sleeve with inner wallet.
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LP
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ALT 052LP
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LP version. Transparent blue vinyl with insert. Container is the project of American noise veteran Ren Schofield, originally from Providence, Rhode Island, and now based in London. Editions Mego offshoot Spectrum Spools -- run by old friend John Elliott of the band Emeralds -- took the punt to release his debut LP, a collection of mutated techno tracks simply titled LP (SP 007LP). The record gained attention quickly in the electronic music scene largely thanks to Schofield's unique production style that separates him from forms of conventional dance music. Whilst the music of Container sits perfectly fine within dance music, years on the US noise circuit have given Schofield's brand of techno a rawness and direct intensity that stands out in the club and crosses over into other sub-sections of the underground. His modest set up of Roland MC-909, a four-track porta studio and an array of pedals allowed him to hone his scuzzy and bewildering beat music over the years, leading to three more well-received, and literally titled, LP's. Over this time period Container also released some EPs on Morphine, Liberation Technologies, and Diagonal, did a variety of remixes for acts like Four Tet, The Body, Panda Bear, and Fucked Up, plus maintained a healthy touring schedule that reached over every continent. Almost a decade since his debut, Container arrives on Alter with his first non-LP titled album called Scramblers. The title taken from both a Baltimore street drug and a Rhode Island Diner he used to eat at with his father. Schofield elaborates: "The juxtaposition between these two Scramblers is a great one. I wanted to pay homage to a nice name that lends itself to both depraved and wholesome contexts and do my part to carry on the tradition." The eight tracks have their origins in live performance and a more high-octane delivery is noticeable when compared with previous Container albums. "Mottle" sits in a mysterious zone between the productions of EVOL and early Ruff Sqwad. Fierce electro cuts like "Trench" and "Nozzle" work alongside the nauseous slink of "Duster", which in typical Container fashion morphs into a frenzy in no time. A frenzy which may be linked cosmically to the fact that Scramblers was recorded, mixed, and mastered in one day, reinforcing further his unorthodox and fun approach to club music.
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LP
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SP 048LP
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Ren Schofield has returned with a new installment in his notorious LP series for Spectrum Spools. LP has all the earmarks of the classic Container sound with its uber-mangled, saturated tape garble and headlong tempo macabre. However, this new set of tracks feature an attention to composition unlike much of the Container you've previously heard. While the tracks unfurl across two sides of wax the contours and jagged edges of each sonic sculpture display a new refinement while maintaining the full capacity to vaporize any club floor with Container's traditional recklessness. Miraculously, this new LP manages to incorporate some more traditionally "musical" elements thus far untouched upon in the projects output while simultaneously delivering it's most damaged and blown out offering yet. Despite leaving a trail of albums that get more intense with each passing year, this LP is bar none the most loaded. The tracks feature a trajectory with narrative, surrounded by broken acid basslines grating against disintegrating tape loops. This is the infectious and singular hypnosis Container has become well-known for. Overloaded drum patterns, washes of feedback, and dying melodies -- it's all here and somehow it's restructured to be different and better than ever before. With this latest installment, there are no longer shambles but merely dust left behind. As Container continues to evolve in an upward motion, LP presents a refreshing and welcome new chapter. Recorded in Cleveland, Ohio in October 2017 by Andrew Veres. Artwork by Ren Schofield.
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LP
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SP 040LP
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Ren Schofield's Container took the world of underground electronic music by storm with the debut LP in 2011 (SP 007LP). Following massive amounts of touring and the powerful follow-up LP, LP, in 2012 (SP 025LP), the project became a must-experience staple everywhere from U.S. basements to Berghain. After two fantastic EP recordings on Morphine (Treatment, DOSER 016EP, 2013) and Liberation Technologies, Container returns with the first full-length album since 2012, simply titled LP. LP is the most explosive offering in the Container oeuvre, capturing the raw and unhinged essence of the live Container experience while exploring new compositional and sonic limits. Opener "Eject" wastes no time with its instant feedback squeal backed by a barrage of pounding, distorted percussion. The concomitant storm of misfiring FX and derailed drum patterns sets the stage for the aural pandemonium to come. "Remover" and "Peripheral" are dense and intricate structural compositions ruthless in their delivery and infectious in rhythm, stretching the known limits of the project's sound into welcome new realms. Tracks like "Appliance" and "Cushion" find Schofield in his most vicious form, with floor-destroying tempos and a miraculously adroit sense of arrangement. Somehow, LP manages to simultaneously be the most palatable and most damaged contribution yet. Patchwork polyrhythm motifs, melodic (albeit fully blasted) hook sensibilities, and ballistic synthesized sounds are melted down together and shaped into some of the most rewarding, enjoyable works yet heard on any of the LP offerings. The closing "Calibrate" pounds with a hypnotic churn, growing into a stasis of red-hot squelches and deranged electronic malfunction that recalls some of the earliest tape works Schofield created. LP gives a sense of "full circle," blurring the end and the beginning into a baffling riddle that can only be admired and never solved. Schofield has enigmatically crafted his most insane Container album to be the most architecturally dexterous and club-minded, never compromising his fundamentals while evolving the project in an utterly satisfying fashion. LP is his most locked-in full-length recording to date, long overdue and absolutely essential.
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12"
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DOSER 016EP
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Highly-destructive four-track EP from the irrepressible Container, on Morphine Records. Following on from 12"s from the likes of Shake Shakir, Hieroglyphic Being, Madeteo and Metasplice, this one, too, will be blowing up heads.
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LP
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SP 025LP
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2013 repress. Providence, RI's (recently relocated from Nashville, TN) Container returns with another slab of alternate universe bent techno. Schofield's take on that over-used genre is not only unique but utterly compelling, forming a modern and exciting new sound. While the classic Container sound is still in tact, this album offers a look into a previously closed door in the Container sound world. LP, like its predecessor LP, is recorded in mono and it cuts right down the middle of your skull, and doesn't float around in an imaginary room. These new tracks are immediate and heavy. Kicking off the delayed trip of "Dripping," a rhythmic bone akin to a rusty swing in a ghetto playground, morphs seamlessly into the complex maze that is "Paralyzed." Closing the side is a real stomper/head-cleaner of a track, the mighty "Acclimator." Side B opens with "Perforate," a bass line straight from Mute-era D.A.F., which mutates into an elastic acid line, building into a full rhythm 'n' noise spectacle. The disc closes proper with the mad rush for the bar that is the epic "Refract." LP is a rough and raw ride, adding very much-needed gristle to the pale faces of the stagnant minimal scene. Recorded Labor Day Weekend 2012, in Providence, RI.
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LP
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SP 007LP
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2013 repress. Container is a recent moniker of Nashville, Tennessee resident Ren Schofield, who has been actively shifting about the U.S. playing shows and releasing cassettes on his mysterious I Just Live Here imprint for a long while now. Known primarily for his God Willing project, a disjointed, confusing maze of crude oscillator, tape, and guitar, Ren has established himself as a staple in the East Coast underground. Here we have a new experiment in electronic beat-oriented music. This is no standard fare, however. It glows with a vision all its own, completely isolated and separate, making it difficult to place in the awkward world of the "genre." The sounds are a thick stew, congealing new ideas and naive experiments into something in the ballpark of the new super-weird Wolfgang Voigt 12"s, abstract and minimal in nature with time-stopping tendencies . Take those 12"s and send them through the garbage can, tape loop, reel-to-reel experiments of Ake Hodell's "220 Volt Buddha" or that weird track with a lawnmower by Charles Amirkhanian on the first Slowscan volume and we might be getting closer. This music, by being so unruly and defiant of any kind of trend, has created a fresh fusion we have not heard until now. "Application" introduces you to Container in the most suitable way. A confusing anti-rhythm accompanied by eerie, unidentifiable tones before a collapse of metallic drum sounds washes you out into the minimal, motorik "Protrusion." The flip takes off with intense feedback squeal and more light speed rhythm, leading into "Overflow," the album's wildest, most textural piece. "Rattler" leaves the listener absolutely baffled and flipping the record over again to try to figure it all out as this record makes no sense to anybody but its creator. The experimental nature of this album alone warrants its vinyl release; however, the fine detail and unique structures will have you waiting for the next Container 12". Mastered and cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, July 2011. Design and layout assistance by Mike Pollard.
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