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LP
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AVE66 019LP
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mindSET is the ninth album from enigmatic producer SW., directly following 2024's excursion into his trademark techno, IDM and bleep soundscapes, on the myDEFINITIONS Vol II album. But with his mindSET album, SW. takes a left turn, as pioneers often do, and listeners find themselves on the lesser traveled side roads of electronic music history. Or in SW.'s own words: "the more abstract leftfield elements." It's in these less-defined areas that SW. finds his sweet spot, building dancefloor soundtracks that defied definition. And with mindSET, the sounds and the machines might have changed, the methodology remains the same. "It draws from what was more generally seen in leftfield as a term for the slightly off-kilter house and broken beats that didn't fit neatly into classic genres, whether that was Chicago house, French garage, drum and bass, or broken beat. It's more about those in-between sounds that never really took off, only appearing briefly in the early to mid-'90s and then quickly disappearing. There was a certain magic in that moment, which I wanted to capture. Also, the entire album was produced using classic analog equipment, with old machines that were used during that era. That's the approach I've taken." The eight tracks on mindSET are shaped out of de-tuned techno pop synths and heavy, syncopated drums, grooving along chopped-up polymeters to create an eerie mood, as if orbiting an undiscovered planet for the first time. The harmonic movements are often bent out of shape, sometimes veering towards Gherkin Jerks or Cristian Vogel territory. But in the end, the sounds are less important than the atmosphere, and the tracks represent an attitude or an approach -- to creating the music as well as experiencing it. mindSET is a nod to those dancers sharing an oddball moment, and for those of us on the same wavelength, it's a vibe listeners can all get inside.
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2LP
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AVE66 018LP
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The elusive SW. returns to Avenue 66 with okALGORYTHM. His third LP for the label is a semi-opaque wandering through the shadowy byways of memory, driven by tough-yet-supple production, and his unmistakable, unerringly original voice. Inspired by all night electronic radio shows of the '90s, okALGORYTHM pulses with rich imagination and a sense of purposeful meandering. Speaking in cryptic fragments, the artist hints at elusive reminiscences "back then on the Autobahn, to Berlin, with friends" while also noting that some recollections are "of things that didn't happen that way." To this end, the album drifts from the knotty synth spirals of opener "WHAtADAY" through the tense, technoid tropics of "stepCLASSixMOtor," the brightly melancholic Larry Heard-isms of "TROPyCALLhytsrIA" to the stately skronk of closer "What endingENDs." The rhythmic undergirding never lets up, suggesting a limitless night drive tinted in deep greens and refracted reds. Each of the album's ten tracks comes alive with warm, analog finesse and a palpable atmosphere, though they play out by turns urgent or unhurried, coaxing or inscrutable. Yet throughout, there's a consistently hypnotic quality which draws the listener deeper into the album's unique balancing act. If listeners are trained to expect throwback anthems every time the '90s are referenced, here they might find a more apt touchstone in the wilder, left-of-center corners of Chicago's foundational epoch. Throughout the album, the spirit of jacking house is absorbed, metabolized and transmuted. Drawing on lineages of taut, nervy synth-and-drum machine workouts, SW. manipulates his hardware with the delicate, considered touch of a painter. Perhaps the memory that lingers longest from that bygone era is the sense of profound possibility that dawns before forms become rigidly calcificed and commodified. Either way, adventurous listeners will find that okALGORYTHM blooms with a uniquely affecting grace and SW.'s inimitably obscure loveliness, infused with a somber glow and marked by shimmering, untraceable contours.
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LP
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AVE66 012LP
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Following up from his TRUElipS album (AVE66 010LP) from 2020, SW. returns to Avenue 66 with a seven-track LP titled blewLIPs. Edition of 300.
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2LP
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AVE66 010LP
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Over the past decade, SUED co-founder SW. has arranged the building blocks of dreamy rave and techno music -- billowing pads, undulating sub-bass, and adroit, nuanced drum programming -- into and novel dance floor structures. TRUElipS, SW.'s first full album since 2016 and his first for Avenue 66, is a beguiling, fully-realized statement. The 12-track LP is rooted in the storied '90s era when the spirit of orbital raves and free parties was channeled into massive leaps forward in the studio. A combination of house and drum n' bass looms large, as does the much-referenced intelligent techno era, but if you've listened to an SW. record, you already know TRUElipS is the work of a singular auteur. Breakbeats, rave stabs and major chords permeate the album, motoring along on a chassis of sine-wave bass lines and SW.'s widescreen percussive vision. Forays into downtempo and sweeping ambience keep the listener's head in the clouds, while the superb melodic techno constructions that comprise the album's core are at once contemplative and liable to bring on a giddy head rush. TRUElipS brims with the optimistic, escapist spirit that fueled dance music's original triumph, a throwback to bright, imagined futures.
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