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LP
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HOS 726LP
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LP version. Burning The Rural District overcomes eight tracks of heavy rhythmics, cold sequences, and blue flame atmospheres related to experiencing a closed society. This energy is tied and twisted through a widescreen vision manifested in stressful breaks/d'n'b cut-ups, and the maddening dysmorphia of bent sequences and signature fuzzy bass guitar harkening back to NYC post-punk roots. Recorded over many years entirely in Tbilisi, Burning The Rural District is influenced by the emerging super strong techno scene thriving in Georgia, despite that there is a lingering homophobia outside of the vast club culture. This is a snapshot putting a different window on that time of displacement, newness and ultimately creation. lived vicariously and personally, in the aftermath of physical street violence among ex-soviet state impromptu warehouses, to the sudden suicide of an acquaintance, in the shadow of the orthodox church, an unlikely but singular uplifting freedom emerged from this very closure. "He died in the town where he was born." Cover art by Richard Ramirez.
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CD
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HOS 726CD
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Burning The Rural District overcomes eight tracks of heavy rhythmics, cold sequences, and blue flame atmospheres related to experiencing a closed society. This energy is tied and twisted through a widescreen vision manifested in stressful breaks/d'n'b cut-ups, and the maddening dysmorphia of bent sequences and signature fuzzy bass guitar harkening back to NYC post-punk roots. Recorded over many years entirely in Tbilisi, Burning The Rural District is influenced by the emerging super strong techno scene thriving in Georgia, despite that there is a lingering homophobia outside of the vast club culture. This is a snapshot putting a different window on that time of displacement, newness and ultimately creation. lived vicariously and personally, in the aftermath of physical street violence among ex-soviet state impromptu warehouses, to the sudden suicide of an acquaintance, in the shadow of the orthodox church, an unlikely but singular uplifting freedom emerged from this very closure. "He died in the town where he was born." Cover art by Richard Ramirez.
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2LP
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OSTGUT 034LP
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Double LP version. Scanning Backwards, Phase Fatale's second full-length album following his 2017 debut album for Hospital Productions, is music about control. Using the connection between weaponized sound and psychological manipulation as a conceptual foundation, Hayden Payne explores the ways in which music -- and sub frequencies in particular -- are used to influence thinking and to synchronize emotions and behavior: from military technology to sound systems and the physicality and sexuality of queer techno culture. Known for his innovative post-punk takes of dance music as featured on EPs for unterton and Ostgut Ton, the Berghain resident draws on his background as both a guitarist and sound engineer to create a heady mix of broken rhythms, noise-, and shoegaze-inflected techno, often at slower tempos. The result is music with space and pace to expand, highlighting the intense rushes of frequencies found in both sonic warfare and functional dance music. Over eight tracks named after a combination of historical and fictional narratives from literature and science fiction, Payne's rhythmic excursions explore different manifestations of sound as power -- specifically within the context of seeing Berghain as an instrument itself. This is also reflected in the album artwork, taken from an early flyer for the SNAX party series and an obvious ode to the fetishization of power dynamics. In his own words: "All tracks on the album, no matter the style, were tailored to sound a certain way in Berghain -- something I figured out through years of dancing in the middle of the floor, DJing as a resident and investigating what frequencies really penetrate the body. This includes speech and high-frequency, brain-penetrating instrumentation and drilling textures that I had not utilized so often before, but which I think also have an effect on thought and memory. It's especially true in a space where gay and fetish roots combine with music in unexpected ways, almost in a cultish manner. A musical and physical deprogramming and reprogramming, psychic driving and de-patterning, the erasing and replacing of memories." Ultimately, Scanning Backwards surveys not only the manipulative properties of electronic music (mantras, loops, subliminal messages) but also how rhythm facilitates both moving and thinking in synchrony; a pulse of coordinated sound -- and brainwaves.
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CD
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OSTGUT 048CD
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Scanning Backwards, Phase Fatale's second full-length album following his 2017 debut album for Hospital Productions, is music about control. Using the connection between weaponized sound and psychological manipulation as a conceptual foundation, Hayden Payne explores the ways in which music -- and sub frequencies in particular -- are used to influence thinking and to synchronize emotions and behavior: from military technology to sound systems and the physicality and sexuality of queer techno culture. Known for his innovative post-punk takes of dance music as featured on EPs for unterton and Ostgut Ton, the Berghain resident draws on his background as both a guitarist and sound engineer to create a heady mix of broken rhythms, noise-, and shoegaze-inflected techno, often at slower tempos. The result is music with space and pace to expand, highlighting the intense rushes of frequencies found in both sonic warfare and functional dance music. Over eight tracks named after a combination of historical and fictional narratives from literature and science fiction, Payne's rhythmic excursions explore different manifestations of sound as power -- specifically within the context of seeing Berghain as an instrument itself. This is also reflected in the album artwork, taken from an early flyer for the SNAX party series and an obvious ode to the fetishization of power dynamics. In his own words: "All tracks on the album, no matter the style, were tailored to sound a certain way in Berghain -- something I figured out through years of dancing in the middle of the floor, DJing as a resident and investigating what frequencies really penetrate the body. This includes speech and high-frequency, brain-penetrating instrumentation and drilling textures that I had not utilized so often before, but which I think also have an effect on thought and memory. It's especially true in a space where gay and fetish roots combine with music in unexpected ways, almost in a cultish manner. A musical and physical deprogramming and reprogramming, psychic driving and de-patterning, the erasing and replacing of memories." Ultimately, Scanning Backwards surveys not only the manipulative properties of electronic music (mantras, loops, subliminal messages) but also how rhythm facilitates both moving and thinking in synchrony; a pulse of coordinated sound -- and brainwaves.
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12"
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OSTGUT 113EP
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Phase Fatale makes his Ostgut Ton debut with the J.G. Ballard-inspired EP Reverse Fall. Over the past four years, Hayden Payne, aka Phase Fatale, has earned a reputation as a techno innovator for his use of dystopian electronics as well as his deep understanding of synthesis and sound design. In 2017 he released his first album, Redeemer (HOS 494CD/LP) and kicked off his own label BITE with a collaboration between himself and Silent Servant. On Reverse Fall, he has sharpened the rhythmic contours of his productions, creating an imposing wall of sound within the techno framework.
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LP
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HOS 494LP
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Redeemer is the brutally seductive debut album by Phase Fatale, a key player in the recent charge of EBM and post punk-informed industrial techno infecting 'floors from his home city, New York City to his DJ residency at Berghain, Berlin. In Dominick Fernow's Hospital Productions, Hayden Payne, aka Phase Fatale, finds a fitting home for his personalized brand of clinical, rictus rhythm programming and searing synth and guitar lines, adding a vital streak of black-and-blue electric energy to the legendary label in its 20th year of cultish operation. In seven parts, Redeemer follows the direct, jagged lines of his 12"s for Jealous God and Unterton (UTON 011EP, 2017) to a deeply personal realization of weaponized sonics, upholding a strong tradition of techno as a prophetic exercise or ritual to gird dancers and listeners for the onset of future war. It presents Phase Fatale as an ultimate emissary of electronic violence and domination in the process, steeling the limbic system and muscle memory through a fine-tuned disciplinarian approach to pharmacokinetics and biomechanics. Picking from the leather-bound cadaver of industrial dance music past, Phase Fatale reanimates his influences with pointillist precision and unapologetic force. Alloying muscular bass and metallic percussion with wire-combed 16th note synth lines and a barbed perimeter of guitar distortion, his sound can be heard as a metaphorical representation of holding your line against the attrition of a degenerated present. Each track dances concisely around the five minute mark, unfolding a series of densely packed and subtly rendered minimalist/maximalist structures. The shuddering tension of "Spoken Ashes" opens with banks of rotted chorales against a coalface of hacking stabs, establishing a pent vibe that vacillates precariously thru the adrenalized battery of "Operate Within", to the clenched funk of "Human Shield" and the bombed-out, Alberich-like "Interference", seeming to resolve slightly with the supple roll of "Order Of Severity", before "Beast" bottoms out into immolating synth distortion, and "Redeemer" brings up the rear with a coolly-tempered, stoic form of industrial ecstasy. RIYL: Silent Servant, Ancient Methods. Artwork by Silent Servant. Master and lacquer cut at Dubplates & Mastering.
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CD
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HOS 494CD
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Phase Fatale creates techno from disparate subcultures of dead industrial with a post-punk spirit, bringing back an immediacy and aggressive energy sorely missing in the contemporary electronic landscape. With Redeemer, the debut full-length from Phase Fatale, conceived by DJ and producer Hayden Payne in New York by way of Berlin, deepens his exploration of the tension -- both sonic and conceptual -- which begun on his EPs released over the last three years on the Jealous God and Unterton labels. In intent and impact, Phase Fatale bears allegiance to the surreal influence of Juan Mendez, aka Silent Servant, with whom Payne has worked closely in collaboration. A defining trait of Payne's music is his ability to reconcile and integrate the underground character of his past into a precise story on the dancefloor. His subtle incorporation of guitars and vocals never make way for disclaimers or apology. They puncture the face of the mix or recede into the latticework of the sequence, always stalking the perimeter. While maintaining a cold energy that isn't begot with nostalgia, he edits and extracts the essence of his influences into an unapologetic future. His malaise is repurposed for the degenerated present -- in his atmospheric universe of minimalist/maximal percussion. Beginning with the opening track, "Spoken Ashes", Phase Fatale demonstrates his unique ability to build tension, cultivating a sound that vacillates, at times imperceptibly, between fragile tranquility and unsettling claustrophobia. He maintains this tense equipoise throughout the album, frequently counterbalancing the vigor of the drums with layers of lost melodies that hang just above the frenetic rhythm and grainy pulse of electronics. The tracks here are controlled and succinct, tightly wound and relentlessly kinetic. Rarely extending beyond the five-minute mark, the songs are compositionally sculpted simultaneously for physical impact and functional decay. Payne describes Redeemer as a deeply "personal piece", a characterization that is clear upon listening, but doesn't offer any simple answers. On Redeemer, Payne raises a palpable question tracing the circumference somewhere between the despair and liberation one feels standing at the precipice of cynical ecstasy. This is a techno album, but one that is refreshingly punk.
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12"
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UTON 011EP
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Berlin-based New Yorker Phase Fatale debuts on Unterton with Anubis. "Hollow Flesh" starts with an oppressive, regimented beat sequence reminiscent of angst-ridden, sci-fi scenarios. "Anubis" opens with an atmospheric intro until a kick sets the tone for a more straightforward, hypnotic, and cold techno cut -- heady and gloomy. "Wound" ignites some harassing fire: what abruptly starts off like a classic techno-meets-sizzling-noise track soon alters to a more tribal, snare-led industrial cut. "The Size Of God" stands out with a more introverted, slow, broken rhythm structure, looped drones, opaque-distorted voice transmissions, and swelling synth melodies.
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