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2LP+CD
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MUNDO 002LP
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Double LP version. Includes CD of entire album.
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CD
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MUNDO 002CD
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American (but Berlin-based) Stewart Walker returns with his new album release Ivory Tower Broadcast. A quarter century of the same drum machines and bass lines turned future music into golden oldies. Visionaries don't make techno based on particular instruments but a set of techniques which can dilate time, implode sound, and confound expectation. Stewart Walker returns after a six-year retreat to bring his own future sound with Ivory Tower Broadcast. The Ivory Tower refers to a cloistered and elitist mental space removed from practical considerations and criticism. It's a perfect metaphor for a music studio: escape the noise outside and start from nothing but memory. Forget the rules, they're from a long time ago. Based heavily on live instruments and the scrape and noise of performance, Ivory Tower Broadcast tightly controls and contorts the human element and splays it across the time-corrected perfection of sequenced rhythm. Disparate recreations of post-punk bass lines and shoegaze guitars are sliced through with "drunken master" scratching inspired by the late great DJ Screw. German zithers and Japanese kotos are plucked and strummed to recall the warm chorus of Appalachian mountain music. The techno is there in the tension and hypnosis of the beat, stripped dry and metronomic to support the luxurious sound. On Ivory Tower Broadcast Stewart corrals sounds from different memories and geography and binds them into an emotional experience with rarely-seen vision and skill.
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12"
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CURLE 026EP
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This is the first Curle from Stewart Walker. He started his career on the mythical Detroit label Matrix, did some stuff for Force Inc, Tresor, Mille Plateaux and M_nus, before founding the amazing Persona imprint. Since then, he has done very few releases on other labels. All three tracks on this Curle EP live and breathe the deep, melodic, minimal sound Stewart Walker is known for, and Scratched Notes is among the very best music he has ever released.
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12"
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PRS 035EP
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Persona label boss Stewart Walker returns with his first 12" release since his well-received album Concentricity. The powerful A-side "The Stiff Materialist" kicks off the release with at least a thousand sounds and a clearly defined dynamic narrative, shifting between unique peaks and plateaus. On this release he continues to navigate the correct balance between power and detail in high, medium and low intensities.
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12"
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PRS 031EP
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After a hugely successful return to techno with Stewart Walker's album Concentricity, Persona lets loose its beloved friends and family to sharpen their sampling knives to pare the original recordings down to three servings of musical sashimi. Jeff Samuel's version of "We Welcome Utopia!!!" is a chewy rendering, in track of its ambience, rhythms and basslines. Marco Tonni takes his favorite morsels from "Fragile Chemistry" and loops them into a propulsive, mechanical eighth-note stepper. Robag Wruhme takes the super-driving force of "Fernbank 1991" and submarines its rhythms into a most luscious slice of heavenly floatation.
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2LP
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PRS 028LP
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Double LP version. Commemorating Walker's 10th year of making records and performing, Concentricity contains 10 all-new tracks of detailed electronic dance music representing the many facets of his musical personality, some of which we've heard before and some which are completely new. Downtempo, techno, ambient... he's been there and left his mark in every area with recordings on such legendary labels such as Minus, Tresor, and Mille Plateaux. Not content with the "flatness" of so many contemporary tracks, the orchestration grew more baroque, with a rebirth of structure and dynamics. More highs and more lows, and a broader timbral palette. Mixing the personal touch and the propulsive rhythm, this is the future of future-music, and this is what Persona Records brings you.
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12"
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PRS 027EP
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Druid Hills is the great foreshadowing of Stewart Walker's new album. A1: "Fernbank 1991" has gotta be the hittin'est dancefloor track Stewart has dropped in recent history. Big kicks, big snares, and then at the climax, a smear of hi-hat mosquitoes and echoing synthesizers collide with the windshield of the bass lead. "Foreshadowing" is like sitting in the dark and listening to an old woman tell a ghost story. Whispering in your ear, and then the sound of scissors. Immersive reverse pianos. The last track sounds like a real mute-unmute track, but there's a soul to be found in its Kraftwerkian rigidity. Or maybe in the melody which drizzles like rain on a sunny day.
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CD
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PRS 021CD
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American techno-minimalist, producer and Persona Records label-head Stewart Walker returns with his first full length mix CD. It's been just over a year since Persona Records transplanted its home base from Boston to Berlin, Germany. In that time the Persona sound has developed through its interaction with the "Berlin sound." Persona has consistently tried to ride the path between these hedonistic and sober approaches. In light of this transition, the label thought it wise to represent Persona's progress as a continuous mix, which allows music lovers to judge for themselves how the label and the artists themselves have changed. Includes music from Stewart Walker, Touane, Gregory Shiff and Gustavo Lamas.
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12"
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PRS 020EP
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American techno-minimalist and producer Stewart Walker presents three new Persona melodies. "After This I'll Never Sleep" comes in deep and moving with seamonster funk -- his first official "acid track" recorded with the aid of a Devilfish-modified TB-303. Also add musique concréte, kick drum aesthetic, muted trumpet and foghorns with a fat kickdrum and broken shuffle percussion. The next track is driving, with flashes of synthesizer and resonant bass slurps. Finally, "Crabgrass vs. Monkeygrass" reflects the new Walker sound: delicate shininess and light. Pleasure and happiness. Maybe it's the yearning for the first green shoots of grass at the Volkspark.
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12"
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PRS 018EP
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American techno-minimalist and producer Stewart Walker eschews the black hole of minimalism and firmly wears his heart on his sleeve on Spend The Day Frozen. The first track compresses four kickdrums and six snares, heavy metal guitar samples, and adds screaming crowd noise on top of it all. The second track is mellow and dubby, with strummed guitar chords and Stewart's first recorded vocals for a techno track. The last has a fat bassline and can certainly rock a freaky dancefloor. Locate it somewhere between the Brighton-sound and Patsy Cline.
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CD
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PRS 011CD
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"After years of trying to reconcile the separate experiences of the 'listening techno' he has released on Persona and Force Inc. and the pounding 4/4 jack-trax of his world-renowned live performances Stewart Walker has finally managed to merge both worlds to his satisfaction. Live Extracts is the result of taking the exclusive and never before released sounds from his live show and re-orchestrating them with the full control offered by a home studio."
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