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viewing 1 To 10 of 10 items
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12"
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SM 031EP
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"In Solotempo's latest effort, there's more than just a faint echo of the irresistible grooves of warm, soulful Detroit house. It's highly danceable stuff that won't hit you in the face, but will bathe you in sensual analogue sounds. Every single tone on this record is of analogue origin, all mixed in real time to what essentially is an electronic live album."
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12"
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SM 030EP
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"Solotempo's new EP basks shamelessly in catchy harmonies, indulges in bassdrums and wallows in the beauty of analog sounds processed with precision. 'New Ears' is firmly rooted on the dancefloor. On this particular dancefloor, you're plunged into discreetly arranged, hypnotising house and minimal tracks, which don't simply sit on their beat, but gracefully summersault again and again, creating those unique moments of eternity. Fittingly, Solotempo's sounds should work best on springy forest soil, at around four or five in the morning when dawn breaks and the sun rises."
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CD
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SM 021CD
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"Softland is a solo project with a determined do-it-yourself mentality. War Againstt Error is Zürich-based Christof Steinmann's second album, after his debut One Is A Very Small Crowd (2003), and consists of six longer, experimental vocal pop songs written between 1997 and 2005. The stylistic bandwidth spans melancholy lo-fi pop songs and chanson parody to bewildering soundscapes, unexpectedly morphing into intricately arranged electronic tunes in full cinemascopic format. There's a common and particular tendency towards eclecticism, apparent in opulent, playful song structures and an almost outrageous combination of stylistic influences drawn from imaginary folk, electroacoustic or minimal music. The CD-version adds several more tracks and broadens the spectrum of the six core tracks by interlacing them with field recordings and weaving the whole into a soundtrack-montage, considerably exceeding the length of a standard pop album. Using field recordings as a basis, the tracks combine acoustic instruments such as double bass, harmonium, recorder and voice with synthetic sounds derived from analog sources and digital processing. In his exploration of unusual timbres, sounds and harmonies, Softland uses a limited instrumental technique as consciously as chance algorithms, software abuse and an alchemical trial-and-error strategy within his compositions. By layering, filtering, cutting and pasting, what seems initially like a lack of precision, grows into a dense structure of intricate rhythms and complex harmonies. The end result retains both pop and club culture as core reference points, while at times stretching the boundaries of these genres beyond recognition."
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LP
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SM 021LP
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CD
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SM 018CD
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"Martin Wigger's second album departs significantly from the predominantly ambient and soundscape leanings of I-XIV released back in 2002. Martin's preoccupation here is with beat constructions, as intricate as some of his label mates but sacrificing none of the flow and rhythmic coercion for which the label is gathering a plethora of advocates. Each track is named after a disassembled piece of the word Solarium -- and what we glimpse here is a related set of pieces, readily involved with serious bass-lines and chattering, implosive beat constructions. The format is unabashed and electronic, 'Olar' subscribing to some of the best tenets of the much maligned IDM genre, 'Ulr' is brave enough to takes the beat squarely into holy territory, looking to revive the adrenaline rush on hearing Autechre's seldom surpassed 'Tri Repetae' for the first time. 'Muir' settles on a refined, subtle take on the Spezialmaterial sound, built specifically for rocking European underground venues to their very foundations. The sounds here are developed, considered, dark and light, more abstract perhaps than Solarium's previous work."
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CD
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SM 017CD
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"Hans Platzgumer and E Stonji return as HP Stonji to deliver this mighty, complementary album to their well received 6-track EP for the Spezial Material collective. 14 tracks in all, and with ten exclusive to this release, this CD encompasses fully the collective's penchant for digital artistic and musical exploration, with some splendid additional features for MAC & PC. Stonji are of course at home in the warehouse or arthouse, but the dirty fat breaks, whomping basslines and dark atmospheres align them most accurately with the former. 'Errorbeauty' was elevated to Breezeblock bomb status and a big nighttime Radio 1 favorite with the late great John Peel. It lashes benign waves of melody to a tuff bass drum which guarantees devastation for the brave, and sounding more deadly than ever in digital format. 'Metic' operates from a giddy height, classic style eighties electro-funk drums, topped with the most dramatic, mind altering waves of sound, crazy noises set to dose digital block parties everywhere -- it's just one of those massive sub-breaking cuts you just cannot mess with...at all. Awesome. 'Mith' again enjoys a crystalline production, synapse impulses cut to wax, rolling stuff to be sure -- proper club tackle for biggest systems only. 'Hagry' harks back to a golden era -- simplifying matters into a Miami infused glide out, then lulled into a complacent sense of security -- proceeds to dismantle and fully decimate the whole thing, totally and utterly. Probably the definitive Spezialmaterial release so far."
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12"
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SM 016EP
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"Solotempo are Jean-Claude Langensand and André Senn. This is a devastating twelve, able to bang with the best of them, fracturing a hip-hop phenomenon into a block stopping electroid mash up, capable of destroying weak-hearted systems. Enlisting remix support from Raf & Superdefekt feat Mark Boombastik, the result is a rampaging, careering party tune, jiggered, body-moving bass, laptop hiccups and joy, whistles! No one trick tune this, as the crowd participation swells to a frenzy, the bass annihilation begins, uncategorizable, delirious madness....Solotempo's own remix of the tune opens the flipside in fine styles. A pensive padding crunch allows a moment of recollection, splintering sounds only part prepare us for the roughest piece hardcore around right now. Digitally created, the bass is immense, the surges reminiscent of a legendary, occasional phenomenon like the Gescom acid set. Vocals splinter even further, perhaps enacting the words in a totally fresh way -- no piledriving monotony, just purest liquid hard digital funk."
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CD
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SM 014CD
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"Spezial Material is a label with a pedigree to be reckoned with, surrounded by a host of admirers and friends from Gescom to the Warp crew and beyond, redefining that most typical of electronic euphemisms 'collectable' into a statement about not only the scarcity of their releases, or the strikingly inventive and sublime use of artwork and packaging, but also to the formation of some of the most advanced intricate (ahem) electronic stylings you'll hear this side of Autechre. Thomas Federspiel & Fabian Stübi are longtime SM crew operators -- In Pectra is their debut full-length release. This album has been a long time coming, taking time to deploy its deep mass of chopped, squashed and downright spannered beat arrangements : 10 tracks of sheer brilliance that terrify with a demented hip hop aesthetic and an insistence on puncturing demented tweaks and rhythmic malfunctions with every turn. If you've been impressed by Team Shadetek or any of Scott Herren's many incarnations, or even the longtime percussive re-inventions of Autechre, In Pectra is just for you."
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CD
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SM 010CD
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"Switzerland's Spezial Materials imprint has amassed a huge following in the course of its 3-year lifespan to date. Friends of the label, including Autechre's Rob Brown & Sean Booth, Gescom's Rob Hall, Plaid's Ed and Andy, Mark Broom and countless others have admired the label's ability to inject a freshness of attitude and aesthetic development to a genre that has always cut itself close to the edge. This is the third compilation on the label so far, and the first to be given a full commercial release. Split impeccably between a showcase of forthcoming attractions and a catalogue of remixers to die for, the emphasis lies from start to finish on innovation and collectability. A full line-up of core artists is present, from the developed complex crunch of Intricate's 'Tinizong' and 'Hund', to Softland's delicate piano and bass modulation, to Person's twisted digital hip hop grind and Solotempo's killer squashed beats and malfunctions -- leaving you with a good idea of how and why so many key artists volunteered their remixing skills for a project of this scale." Artists: Bitstream, Skanfrom, Team Doyobi, Made & Advanz, Gescom, Plaid, Plastique de Reve, Intricate, Staubsauger, Person, Monoblock B+ Nora Duster, Solotempo, Softland, Phonem. limited stock.
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CD
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SM 007CD
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"Switzerland's SpezialMaterial crew return once again with another new artist, another crushing EP and yet another packaging concept that leaves mouths watering without fail. These guys truly are a force to be reckoned with, having grabbed the attention of the Skam crew and electronic heads around the world, it's easy to see why anyone who comes across their obscure releases clamours for more. Solotempo's debut effort is a devastatingly crunchy electronic affair, all squashed beats and deep basslines, the kinds of atmospheric keys that Gescom delight in doing our heads in with...just the right side of futuristic bliss."
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