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LP
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KTX 006LP
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Mechanical Marvels: Clockwork Dreams is Alex Menzies', aka techno head Alex Smoke, follow up to 2015's Order & Disorder LP (KTX 003LP) release for Kathexis, both original soundtracks to BBC4 documentaries. The film Mechanical Marvels: Clockwork Dreams explores the amazing and untold story of automata - extraordinary clockwork machines designed hundreds of years ago to mimic and recreate life. Much of the instrumentation used for Menzies' carefully constructed score was also of the type actually incorporated into automatons, including bells, chimes and wind organs. Percussive patterns scattered throughout the cues are samples of machines moving, gears grinding, halting, some of them automatons themselves. As with Order & Disorder strings and choir are also spread throughout these evocative cues bridging a link from 18th century instrumentation and machines and providing an emotional connection to these long-forgotten marriages of art and engineering that are actually the ancestors of many of our most-loved modern technologies, from recorded music to the cinema and much of the digital world. With Mechanical Marvels: Clockwork Dreams, Menzies' talents as a composer really shine through; each piece revealing a level of technical sophistication and an inventive use of instruments both new and old to hauntingly beautiful results. Edition of 300.
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LP
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KTX 003LP
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Alex Menzies, more commonly known as Alex Smoke, began his techno career in the early 2000s, with years of international performances and DJ sets culminating in a string of heady 12"s for the inimitable R&S label in 2013 and '14. Menzies's techno prowess has always carried with it a keen sense of compositional rigor, with harmonic outlining pads and strings adding emotional depth and weight. A classically trained cellist, Menzies has shifted his attention back to composition, cello, and the piano, collaborating on abstract installation work with visual master Florence To. The second release on Ricardo Donoso's label Kathexis and the first in a two-part series of BBC documentary soundtrack work, Order & Disorder sees Menzies using a sound palette of mostly orchestral instrumentation, including, voice, cello, and prepared piano, as well as electronic sources like the ondes Martenot. Each different cue of electronic and acoustic hybrid miniatures develops throughout the album, each piece carrying with it a profound depth and gravity that is unique and unrivaled in its beauty. For a high-level physics documentary focusing on entropy and information, presented in a strikingly engaging manner, Menzies's score provides a serene take on the slippery concept of energy. Angelic harmony runs in parallel with more unpredictable elements like prepared piano, tape hiss, percussive clicks, and smothered field recordings, truly encapsulating the documentary's themes and our relationship to the world around us -- chaotic, beautiful, but most of all full of wonder and awe. Limited to 300 copies; initial copies on mint-colored vinyl.
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