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2LP +7"
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NAT 011LP
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Chicago-based label Nation returns to the forefront with The Modern Electronic Element Serie 2, the second release in a series designed to showcase the different elements of the Jakbeat sound through the conceptual artistry of Traxx and the whole Nation movement. Featuring a line-up not for the faint of heart, the collaboration represents a return to the simple synth and prototypical rhythm from the early age of electronic dance. "Dance Planet" is the work of Quid Pro Quo, a project consisting of members Traxx, Mick Wills and Isabella Venis. Traxx's futuristic remix of "Energia" rediscovers the Tevo Howard track's ability to capture and hold a level of intensity but never quite explode. Stripped of all pretentiousness, Steve Summers' first contribution to Nation, "Make Your Move," is a testament of undying love to the days when house music was more than just a generic 4/4 beat layered with tons of different synth-lines on top. "Eurasia - 200," Istanbul-native Baris Karademir's debut on Nation, carries a lot of weight for social change in Turkey, but at the same time captures an inherit beauty in its composition. I.B.M. is back on solid turf, continuing to make seminal electronic recordings of raw power with "The Secret Power Of The Mind." An additional 7" features works from SSPS, the brainchild of Jon "Porkchop" Nicholson (who is also a member of the electronic band Excepter) and Beau Wanzer (Mutant Beat Dance, Streetwalker).
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2LP
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NAT 010LP
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The second album to be unveiled from Nation is called Creep Acid from J.T.C., who has recorded with Spectral, M>O>S, Relief, Crème Organization, and more. Creep Acid carries the resonance of future past, as J.T.C. was driven by thoughts about the lifespan of many things. Words directly taken from the artist for this release:
"When I was a teenager I had to sell my Micro-Moog in order to pay for some serious and necessary repairs to my car. This reality would keep me away from having any new instruments for years. Luckily, my friend Rodger Devine taught me how to compose and record music using my personal computer and tracker software. Years later, I launched a career with that very music. I was grateful for having had the chance to make music without much more that the computer, but all the while I knew that I eventually wanted to go back to analog synthesizers. I wanted to make sounds with subtle sonic variation. I wanted to write tracks with multiple phasing phrases, and to improvise. I started to accumulate some machines that I've always wanted; a TR-909, a TB-303, and an SH-101 that I picked up during a tour in Tokyo. I assembled my studio in an apartment that I shared with D'Marc Cantu in Ypsilanti, MI. Since I wanted to convey a live, improvised feel, I wasn't programming pattern sequences or writing songs with distinct parts. I achieved this goal because D'Marc was kind enough to lend me a hand when I needed it on the machines. When, eventually, we collaborated in that studio, we became 2AM/FM. We wrote the EPs Pt. 1, Pt. 2, and the tracks 'Don't Front!!!,' and 'Electronic Justice' there. For years, I shared my living space with fellow young people. Though I didn't go to college, I did my fair share of partying and consider those my 'college days.' This was my environment at the time that I recorded Creep Acid. I was making music in a haze of smoke. I was indulgent and pleased. Acid house is what drove me to these machines, but once I got there, I was only thinking about enjoying the fruits of improvisation and crude techniques."
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10"
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NAT 009EP
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Killer Nation 10". Saturn V (Traxx & James T Cotton) turn out a sick wave-dipped bomb (live playing: no samples!), while X2 enter bleep warehouse-style territory with dark acid vocals. Immense.
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