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LP
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UR 147LP
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$28.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 5/12/2023
Marcos Díaz has been part of Buenos Aires underground for many years, being in projects like Bosques and making solo music under the pseudonym Entidad Animada (animated entity). Under this project, Marcos has explored sounds that involve a mix of feedback/distortion through synthesizers, guitars and drum machines that hint at the influence of Stereolab, Spacemen 3, and mid-nineties shoegaze. However, there are also ambient soundscapes with a slight rubbed of the ritualistic psychedelia of the Popol Vuh. The display of colors in his music comes together in the midst of a playful, relaxed and optimistic environment that is simultaneously melancholic. Because of the nature of those pieces, but also because in Entidad Animada there is also space for collage sounds that blend randomly with textures of a primitive analog sound, which inevitably causes a paradox between what is alive and what is inert. And it is because Entidad Animada is precisely that, a spectrum or a vision, a ghost. And these sounds are proof of his existence. Pruebas de existencia (proofs of existence) is a collection of recordings that Marcos has made in recent years and that Umor Rex have selected for this album, his first work on the label. A couple of these pieces were only released digitally, while the others have been on ltd cassette editions through Fuego Amigo Discos in Argentina. Pruebas de existencia is an Umor Rex compilation and remastered edition. Guitar, sampler, synthesizer, organ, bass, drums, and electronic beats, vocals, recording and mixing by Entidad Animada in Buenos Aires. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY. Cover photography Natch Tablescape (1979) by Langdon Clay. Layout by Daniel Castrejón, Mexico City. Includes download code; edition of 300.
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UR 145LP
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Throughout his productive career, Carl Oesterhelt has proven to be an artist who finds it easy to move between musical genres and concepts. Much of his work has been within classical and chamber music, but he has also scored museum exhibitions and he is sometimes part of The Notwist crew as an angular figure on the Munich scene. In Umor Rex, the label has been lucky enough to publish an array of Oesterhelt's universes. In Eleven Pieces for Synthesizer (UR 121LP, 2019) you heard his kosmische side, where the connections with Harmonia or Klaus Schulze were amalgamated with ecclesiastical organ pieces and intense semi-automatic rhythms. A deeply melodic, fresh album. Pure syntax of the modern synthesizer. Further, in The Aporias of Futurism (UR 133LP, 2021), in collaboration with Andreas Gerth (Driftmachine, Tied & Tickled Trio), Oesterhelt showed what is perhaps his darkest side -- a work full of nuances within concrete music and midnight atmospheres. As deep and cerebral an album as it is surprising and catatonic. Yet, it seems that Carl Oesterhelt has another ace up his sleeve. Now he surprises his listeners with The Dualistic Principle, a fantastic album full of weird but charming electronic melodies, rhythms that push the body to movement, sometimes syncopated and abstract, others permanent and fluid. In this work, Oesterhelt invited Johan Simons to give voice to the lyrics. The Dualistic Principle is a sort of rendition of a philosophical review or a nostalgic memory of the glamorous years. There is also underlying humor in the post/space-pop/Munich-disc assortment. The Dualistic Principle is the score to an imaginary film of contemporary hedonism. All music and lyrics by Carl Oesterhelt. Voice by Johan Simons. Additional strings played by the Ensemble für synkretische Musik. Recorded in Munich and Bochum, Germany. Mastered by John Tejada in Sherman Oaks, USA. Artwork by Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City. Blue vinyl; includes download code.
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UR 141CS
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Mexican sound artist Concepción Huerta is also a skilled photographer and video artist, and all of these aptitudes come together in the kinematic elements of her musical thesis. Her narrative seems to be an uninterrupted communication with movement as an axis: it pauses and falls with cadence at some moments; it agitates in disturbance at some others. But one movement perpetually crosses the other, even if sometimes imperceptibly. Her sound work evokes displacements similar to what we could understand as a force of zero gravity. Taking this criterion as a backbone of her most recent work, the idea behind Harmonies from Betelgeuse focuses on the transmission of electricity between body and machine, between the organic and the inorganic. -- Strong loads of sound pulses move away from Earth's gravity through tape-manipulation. Betelgeuse is a star that belongs to the Orion constellation, but, since it has been expelled from its stellar association, it is considered a fugitive -- An exile. Harmonies from Betelgeuse is composed of eight pieces built as a whole, accompanying and destroying each other like theatrical parts of a cosmic tragedy. A beautiful analogy about impending extinction and exile. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri. Photos by Mateo Barbuzzi. Design by Daniel Castrejón. Edition of 100.
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12"
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UR 139EP
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Umor Rex presents a new collaboration between two great exponents of contemporary music who have been part of the electronic and experimental avant-garde for the last three decades. On the one hand, there is Berlin-based musician, composer, and video artist Frank Bretschneider, recognized for precise sound placement, complex, interwoven rhythm structures, and his minimal, flowing approach. On the other hand, Giorgio Li Calzi, the Italian trumpeter, composer, producer, and performing director based in Turin, whose work is known for electronic/effects improvisation combined with the trumpet. The creation process of Zero Mambo started when Giorgio and Frank met in Chamois, the Italian Alps, in 2018. A year later, Bretschneider sent to a few drafts in the form of audio files, loops, and sequences, and Li Calzi used this material quasi as a framework to create new compositions on it. At that time, in the pandemic, with the unprecedented intervention in lives and rituals, the situation led to ideal conditions to reflect and produce music, a snapshot of the weird times. Li Calzi and Bretschneider offer in Zero Mambo a fascinating album between electronic and jazz. It is clear that it is elegant, clean, and minimal, but we have to say, Zero Mambo is also exuberant and cheerful. A fantastic Berlin-Turin music connection. 45rpm; die-cut sleeve; includes download code; edition of 300.
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UR 140CS
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On her second album (first one on Umor Rex), the Minsk born/Paris based artist Lina Filipovich continues her experiments on deconstruction and re-appropriation of classical pieces. BFHC includes seven electronic interpretations of the works of Baroque composers such as Bach, Handel, Frescobaldi, Carleton, and Couperin. Inspired by memories of her experience of interpreting Bach's pieces in early childhood, Filipovich explores the desire to push the limits of performing classical music in the traditional way. Her baroque compositions are manipulated, modified, transformed into loops, cut, slowed down and recycled like any content could be, becoming a raw material for new compositions accompanied by electronic sequences, rhythms and basslines. Through the recycling, sampling and reassembly, Lina creates new listening experiences. And if BFHC can be interpreted as a tribute to baroque music, it can also be understood as a call to action to the work of contemporary artists like Oval, and to all the boom of clicks and cuts at the beginning of this millennium. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri. Artwork by Daniel Castrejón. Edition of 100.
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LP
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UR 137LP
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Yamila reveals her most intimate catharsis in Visions, an album that brings together and provokes the hallucinatory powers of music. Like an ancient herald, she announces the profound feminine mystique while crossing epic melodies full of pleasure and pain. This album is a journey that prodigiously unites baroque accents, Spanish folklore -- such as flamenco -- and contemporary electronic music. Her voice and music -- sometimes torn and others buoyant -- could resemble the score for a biblical passage (ie visions of the Apocalypse), for they are overflowing with physical ecstasy and sounds that one can touch. Visions is composed of different forms and rhythms. Pieces like "Visions V" evolve intensely with sharp and systematized hits -- powerful layers that bring us closer to Alessando Cortini's Forse era. "Visions II", for its part, shares intensity and power with flamenco ritual patterns, as if it were an old Andalusian scene dripping with oscillations and electric shocks. Yet there are luminous vocal pieces such as "Visions I" (featuring Rafael Anton Irisarri), inspired by Manuel de Falla's Suite Española composed in 1922. Here, an aural chiaroscuro with beautiful voices and choirs is deeply fused with daring drones. And it is in the ensemble of moments of Visions where Yamila's conceptual axis is rendered solid. Pain and glory, lacerating religiosity, feminism cauterized by power, and hallucinations as a source (or pretext/tool) to be heard. Yamila exhibits a profuse aesthetic with her music that calls for a look at the far-past with romanticism and nostalgia. Visions is radiant, intense. A unique album. All songs written and performed by Yamila Ríos (Spain), except "Visions I", which features Rafael Anton Irisarri. Recorded between the Swedish winter and the Belgian countryside. Additional musicians: Simbad - guitar; Vera Cavallin - harp. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, New York. Photos by Virginia Rota in Madrid. Design by Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City. Transparent blue vinyl; gatefold sleeve; edition of 500.
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UR 135CS
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Stonewalling offers a collection of electroacoustic pieces taking as input the Mexican vernacular music from the golden age of Mexican cinema of the first part of the 20th century. In those films, music was used as communication due their poor verbal communication-skills. This is an album about communication, about the impossibility to do so to resolve conflicts. In the technical side, some of the sources used as layering in the tracks come from radio frequencies taken from explorations into the software-defined radio universe, mixed with microphone feedbacks, oscillators, and random textures with field-recordings. In the melodic/harmonic structures of the tracks, the main instrument used is a classical guitar with hyper-processed chords using DSP tools. Stonewalling, in some way, follows to 444 (Umor Rex, 2019), serving as a Morse's follow-up into the Mexican vernacular music expeditions. Produced by Alejandro Morse aka Edgar Medina in León, México. Mastered by Edgar Medina. Photos and design by Daniel Castrejón. Includes download code; edition of 100.
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UR 136CS
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These two pieces, recorded in sessions in Ghent, Belgium and Hamburg, Germany, represent the first musical collaboration between long-time friends U. Schütte (half of the German duo Phantom Horse, with several releases on Umor Rex) and G. Steenkiste (aka Hellvete). In this work, two specific traditions of the avant-garde of modern electronic music of the meet elegantly: the systematic, evolutionary and minimal construction of harmonic and solemn forms, with the patience and aesthetics of long durations -- where small changes take time but are always punctual and precise. U. Schütte & G. Steenkiste built a beautiful meeting between electric and acoustic music, basically carried out with a harmonium, a shruti box and modular synthesizers. Beauty is in the details and what Schütte and Steenkiste do here is to cover two long landscapes with well-consolidated details that invite contemplation and moments of extreme sensory relaxation. You have to give yourself a space to listen and see-through sound, and these two long pieces are a rare and perfect opportunity to do so. Recorded by G. Steenkiste and U. Schütte in December 2020 in Sint-Denijs and Hamburg. Mastered by Edgar Medina. Photos and design by Daniel Castrejón. Includes download code; edition of 100.
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UR 133LP
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This double album is a new collaboration between long-time Umor Rex artists Andreas Gerth (one half of Driftmachine) and Carl Oesterhelt (11 Pieces for Synthesizer). Both developed their shared musical cosmos during their time with the now defunct Tied +Tickled Trio. Oesterhelt is also known for his solo compositions for orchestras and for collaborations with Johannes Enders and Hans-Joachim Irmler of Faust. As futurism seems inherent to electronic music, the backward-looking view is alien to its nature -- consequently, a dialectical struggle between these principles is rarely expressed with the means of electronics. Especially today, its essence as a medium of progress stands in opposition to a skeptical position. The Aporias Of Futurism seeks to define a critical location, that stands in opposition to the postmodern concept of interpretation, deconstruction and reformulation and the belief in progress that goes with it. The working method for the album Andreas and Carl followed was the usual musique-concrète-technique -- cut/assemble/edit/process pre-recorded sounds -- but instead of deconstructing the concrete noises into an abstract sound entity, they followed a different path: the organic interweaving of orchestral structures with the electronically processed noise layers into a composition in the sense of classical modernism at the beginning of the 20th century. Carl started with sketches recorded via a broken CD player, processed through a ring modulator, which sounded like old electronic music from the 1950s. To interact with these fragments Andreas recorded and processed a plethora of everyday noises, atmospheres, tonal fragments from the modular, industrial and shortwave radio noise, percussion in the form of door slamming, falling metal sheets, ball tracks, and so on. So, while they still played within the futuristic discipline, the reference to the past is actually unmistakable. One can hear it in the tonality of the contrasting orchestral passages, in the sound character of the processed samples and the sonic electronic layers. Free associations of concepts, books and authors from a wide period of time, such as Milton's Paradise Lost, William Blake, Robert Graves, ancient Rome, as well as Borges and Juan Rulfo. This flood of images is also incorporated on the album cover as a "free interpretation" of cultural objects and their relations in time. The overarching motif of a skeptical rejection of the idea of Futurism is illustrated by a quote from Emile M. Cioran, the writer who most closely embodies the common spirit of the work presented here. Gatefold sleeve; includes download code; edition of 300.
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12"
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UR 138EP
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Paris-based producer Alexandre Bazin returns to Umor Rex with another side to his music approach. If in Full Moon (2016) he explored the analog electronic music merged with classical minimalism, in this new work, Bazin dives into totally rhythmic terrains while maintaining his devotion to electronic exploration and acoustic drums. Four Steps even rubs shoulders without discretion with techno music and the dancefloor, and retains his refined obsession with melody and structure. In these pieces, Bazin lends space to electronic soundscapes, experimentation, and computer programming, everything derived from precise compositions. With melodies created with Buchla Music Easel, EMS Synthi, among other instruments, Four Steps -- through the drone and ambient music -- crosses roads with elegant and infinite techno loops. The album is a four-track EP released in vinyl 12" in 45 rpm, finely mastered by John Tejada with a focal point in harmonics and dimension, offering an exquisite hi-fidelity experience even for the digital lossless audience. Alexandre Bazin has been a member of the France GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) since 2005. Composed and mixed by Alexandre Bazin at Château Rouge. Drums in "Four Steps III" by François Desmoulins. Mastered by John Tejada in Sherman Oaks. Artwork and photos by Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City. Die-cut sleeve; 45rpm; includes download code; edition of 300.
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UR 131LP
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Gudrun Gut and Mabe Fratti have worked together on a powerful hybrid album, where taut rhythms fuse with haunted vocal melodies and spoken word, and field recordings meld with extended ambient pieces. As part of Umor Rex's 15th anniversary, the label presents an album that builds a dialogue between two lands and two unique artists. Mexico is the origin and conceptual residence of our label, while Germany is where the label produces and manufacture our records. The intertwining imaginations belong to German producer Gudrun Gut (Malaria!) -- a notable figure of the subculture and the German music scene since the early '80s, and also a founder of Monika Enterprise and recipient of the "Listen to Berlin" Award in 2019 -- and singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Mabe Fratti (originally from Guatemala, now based in Mexico City). The process started with Gudrun and Mabe having long distance conversations, asking about their whereabouts and discussing the weather. This might seem rather commonplace, but it works as a key thematic component for the entire album. The weather as the new great unknown, perceived through the optics of everyday life. Sound files were methodically exchanged, with Mabe exploring words and vocals, and Gudrun working with field recordings taken from each city. In the end, this joint musical venture would provide a healing effect for both artists during life in quarantine. "Aufregend", the opening track of the album, reflects upon a general lack of excitement in modern life. It wonders what the future might hold. Is it cold? Is it warm? Will it be the same? "Air Condition" is an eerie, dazzling collision of climates: the hazy warmth of Mexico City, the deep cold of Uckermark. The last track, which gives the album its name, is a long ambient piece composed of four parts: sound sculptures, field recordings of city life, news and weather forecasts, and private conversations about the climate. It's kind of a collaborative diary, obsessed with a single, all-encompassing subject. Produced and recorded by Gudrun Gut and Mabe Fratti between Berlin, Uckermark, Veracruz, and Mexico City. Mixed by Gudrun Gut at Stern Studio; mastered by John Tejada in Sherman Oaks, USA. Artwork and photos by Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City. Yellow vinyl; includes download code; edition of 500.
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UR 100LP
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2021 clear vinyl repress with new cover art; originally released in 2017. Post-minimalist American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri's Umor Rex debut. Inspired by a troubled socio-political climate, buried melodies punch their way through a bleak cover of noisy drones, periodically veering into some of Irisarri's most eerily pertinent music to date. One of Rafael Anton Irisarri's most thematically and sonically cohesive records to date The Shameless Years came together in a relatively short burst of creativity starting at the end of 2016. Rediscovering some relatively older tools -- namely Native Instruments' Reaktor, Absynth, and Kontakt software -- Irisarri combined them with his collection of guitars, pedals, amps, and analogue processing gear, turning his Black Knoll Studio north of NYC into a powerful writing tool. Completed quickly by Irisarri's standards, let alone during a period of social upheaval in American society, the record faces down several key personal themes. Two tracks were completely remotely between Irisarri in New York and Umor Rex veteran Siavash Amini from his home in Tehran, Iran. This music came together at the peak of all the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric happening in the USA, not to mention the banning of Iranians from entering the country, explains Irisarri. The diptych with Amini, "Karma Krama" and "The Faithless", seems bathed in additional waves of sorrow and dread. The wash of symphonic storm clouds of synth drones and processed notes on the latter gradually appears and disappears over the course of thirteen mournful minutes. "Rh Negative" marches gigantic guitars through towering valleys of scarred ambient noise dealing with Irisarri's own heritage, many of his ancestors having come to America to escape poverty and oppression. The refusal of modern America to extend similar sanctuary to refugees escaping turmoil weighs heavily on the composer. Elsewhere an emotional onslaught of notes buried in mounds of greyscale noise on "Sky Burial" aims to deal with Irisarri's very own mortality -- something he was recently confronted with following health scares, an accident, and a near-death experience in 2016. Pushing 40 as this album was being made, the composer is constantly aware that he's already outlived his own father, who died at the age of 32. Facing down both intolerance and the void, the epic soundscapes of The Shameless Years are a vast cry of emotion from Irisarri. Mastered by James Plotkin. Includes download code.
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UR 130LP
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Punctual like a Swiss watch, Driftmachine presents a new album that once again astounds and delights. Spume & Recollection is the sixth Umor Rex album by the Berlin duo. Regarding Nocturnes (2014), their debut album, Umor Rex described their sound as precise and symmetrical, identical concrete blocks mounted and articulated in a random order. Their already obsessive style continued to evolve with their third record, Colliding Contours (2016), now pushing further into abstract dub, ultra-tense grooves, and even more kinetic loops, moving further away from conventional musical structures. Between these two albums they released the remarkable Eis Heauton (HG 1601LP, 2015), a kind of hypnotic experiment informed by shadowy atmospheres, chance, and an intuitive dialogue with their musical machines. A similar map was explored with Shunter (UR 113LP, 2018), a superb secret meeting between avant-garde phantasmagoria and concrete experimentation. Radiations (2017) offered B-sides and bonus tracks, in addition to collaborations with Shackleton and The Sight Below, a kind of preamble that united Driftmachine's different expressions and leanings. When Andreas Gerth and Florian Zimmer come up with new material, one listens with high expectation. Looking back on their discography, one could safely anticipate a high-quality album densely layered with their familiar leitmotifs. Yet, Spume & Recollection takes you by surprise and finds a new way to transfix. Fresh methods and ideas are introduced to their dynamics and formula. You can still expect a healthy dose of kosmische, a dominant feature in Driftmachine's DNA; but this is now entwined with novel materials, semi-material patterns of alien code stretching over exhilaratingly tense and detailed grooves, clouds of gas shifting on top of deep dub architecture and blocking out the sun for prismatic effect. Even more of a surprise is the immediate, streamlined nature of these tracks, making Spume & Recollection their most accessible record and, perhaps, the most addictive (and this without sacrificing the essential mystery and strangeness at the core of Driftmachine's sound). Umor Rex have previously described their work as post-industrial-dub; right now, it could be called hypno-music for man and machine to dance and dream together. Spume & Recollection takes this concept as far as it can go without breaking, and finds some strange new feelings, and weirdly danceable grooves, to shed some light on this dark and dazzling ride. Mastered by John Tejada. Artwork and photos by Daniel Castrejón. Violet vinyl; includes download code; edition of 300.
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UR 127CS
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Maatsethe's solo output is all about ambient and sound collage. Loads of processed guitars and samples meander between walls of sound, intimate harmonies and a kind of melancholic cinematic landscape. Stoic basslines are surrounded by soft and gentle spheres. A bit of post-rock feel, every now and then, always wrapped up in a meditative monotony, slightly interrupted by small epic narratives to gaze up. Maatsethe (Matthias Neuefeind, Berlin) curates the KeplarRev series with vinyl reissues of essential electronic albums from the '90s and '00s, he plays in the band Fonoda and is part of the project Washer, Zimmer & the Guitar People. Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 composed by Maatsethe Tracks 5, 7 composed by Fonoda. All tracks recorded by Maatsethe. Mastering by Edgar Medina. Artwork by Daniel Castrejón. Includes download code; edition of 100.
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UR 128CS
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Shapes is the solo project by Niklas Dommaschk, one half of Phantom Horse. As one half of Phantom Horse, his long-serving electronic duo with Ulf Schütte, Dommaschk co-produces beautifully muted, kraut-inspired jams that seem to soundtrack fictitious TV ads for wondrous imaginary household appliances, e.g. a calmly efficient, if slightly unsettling kitchen robot with an integrated lava lamp feature. In contrast, Shapes cuts tracks down to size -- nothing here is longer than five-and-a-half minutes. Also, Dommaschk has turned up the treble, the prominence of the higher frequency spectrum adding bite and menace to these deceptively simple synth polyrhythms. Whereas opening track "Benzin" (German for "Petrol") manages to conjure the paradoxical image of something or someone meandering with urgency, "Einzeller" (German for "single-celled organism") channels a John Carpenter-style pulse, complete with horror sound effects. "Interference" is a truly effective representation of the term, with piercing, but quiet tinnitus frequencies set above a beat as sparse as it is crunchy. "Two Stones", by contrast, offers a kind of robotic wistfulness whereas closing piece "Energies Of The Mind" fizzes out like a jumble of toy keyboards attempting to score a science program -- and failing, but instead revealing some much grander emotional truth. This is the sound of breaking some kind of inner lockdown, of turning inwards and then projecting parts of murky inner shadows outward, as well-defined and sometimes lurid shapes, individually clear, but still in the process of becoming organized into a complete whole. The unfinished is what is most exciting. May the shapes never find their slot in the jigsaw puzzle. All songs by Niklas Dommaschk. Recorded between 2017 and 2020 in Berlin and Nijmegen. Mastering by Edgar Medina. Artwork by Daniel Castrejón. Includes download code; edition of 100.
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UR 129LP
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Mehr Null translates to "More Zero". The title of Phantom Horse's third record for Umor Rex could either be seen as a request (to the listener? to the sound engineer?) to expect or to do or to imagine less; or just as the description of a state. The Hamburg/Nijmegen based duo of Ulf Schuette and Niklas Dommaschk is indeed moving nearer to zero: the arrangements are less illuminated; there's a significant nod to JD Emmanuel's working-class vision of minimalism. Hitherto walking in the kraut tradition (but moving away more and more), Phantom Horse heads toward the synth swamps where the old-fashioned shamanic disco is not yet abandoned. From the light green melancholy of "Owl" to the unexpected playfulness of the title track, the duo has obviously worked hard on leaving things out. Still, there's light-footed magic like in "Common Magic", the background music for a comet rain coming into your world. You can find hints to the lower-key film scores by Tangerine Dream, but Phantom Horse's approach fits more into a factory building where sad robots are working their night shifts on a sea horse machine. It's the perfect soundtrack to the non-hungover day after. Pink, transparent vinyl; includes download code; edition of 300.
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UR 125CS
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Matthewdavid is a co-founder of the Los Angeles label Leaving Records, and a collaborator of Flying Lotus, Sun Araw, Julia Holter, Laraaji, Odd Nosdam, among others. Experimental Bliss is his first album on Umor Rex, two long pieces devoted to the bliss of experimental music creation. This is unconventional music, aiming to assist the listener in attaining a state of bliss or relaxation. It incorporates obvious artifacts of compressed noise and texture with harmonic tonal elements. The creative process is always evolving and changing, often relying on digital music software and hardware technology to process and re-sample collected "organic" sounds from analog or environmental sources. Side A, "Lo-Fi Bliss Music", was recorded and performed live at the Leaving Records modern new age night event, using dynamic compression experiments with a processed and looped Critter & Guitari pocket piano, and ocean sounds samples from a cassette. "Dynamic Rhythmicals" was recorded live at home, using digital marimba samples. Includes download code; edition of 100.
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UR 124CS
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Tropical Syndroms is the second album by Thé Déluge, aka Vincent Caylet, also known as Cankun (Not Not Fun, Hands in the Dark). Like his debut album Forest Structures (Umor Rex, 2017), this new installment is an amalgam of sounds generated through multiple devices and analog synthesizers, loops and layers creating an incredible mix of textures, sounds that can almost be touched. In Caylet's work, there is always a certain familiarity in the tones, there is an implicit nature present, an ancient ecosystem that evokes somewhat ghostly landscapes, intrinsically friendly, subtle and sweet, concrete and sharp. Tropical Syndroms is one piece lasting almost 38 minutes, a cinematic trip inspired by Asian films. One single piece with many different atmospheres, but with one unified idea leading to a melancholic statement. Includes download code; edition of 100.
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UR 123CS
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In just a few years and with a handful of releases, the Canadian producer better known as Yves Malone has earned himself a reputation. In The Beginning of Nothing he continues working with many layers of analog synths and a keen sense of drum machines to create atmospheres and textures extracted from late twentieth-century collective fears of a dystopian future. Created as a sort of score to an internal elegy, Yves Malone creates soundtracks of the daily fear, regret, and resignation that is his waking life, an effort to isolate and negate this anxiety, which is a constant and unwanted companion. Sequenced on mostly working vintage gear, The Beginning of Nothing tries to extricate a bit of beauty from a rapidly darkening landscape. Includes download code; edition of 100.
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12"
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UR 113LP
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2018 release. Shunter, the album by the Berlin-based duo Driftmachine, is their most ambitious work to date. Although instantly recognizable, featuring their trademark kosmische and avant-garde sounds, it also presents a new journey into abstract and hallucinatory worlds. Filled with eerie textures, their electronic visions are darker and more vaporous than ever. Driftmachine's fourth album (also the fourth one for Umor Rex) offers a new perspective on their ample sound spectrum and systemic narratives. Shunter overlaps and mutates their post-industrial-dub motives. It was conceived and produced in search of a very different kind of imagery, with sections of noise and field recordings intersecting with analogue sounds; a mixture of contrasted fragments, where the usual creative process of modular-synthesis leads Andreas Gerth and Florian Zimmer to the discovery of a dark, hazy and diffused experience. There is a protean quality to the rhythmic elements, with tempos constantly contracting and expanding, a departure from the mono-beat-rhythms of "Nocturnes" and "Colliding Contours". The first half of Shunter is made of four pieces named "Shift"; although individually separated, they are conceptually linked and can be understood as a sort of score. Imagine a late stage of the industrial revolution, with the interaction between heavy machinery and human beings. The second half of the album is not completely separated, but it has three other substantial melodic moments. Somewhere between the hauntological and the realms of archive-music, a huge range of subterranean beats and distinct patterns dotting the landscape of early electronic and post dub music. All songs written and produced by Driftmachine, Berlin. Design by Daniel Castrejón. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri.
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UR 110LP
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2018 release. Exit Future Heart follows three Good Willsmith albums released on Umor Rex and three albums by Dustin Wong and Takako Minekawa on Thrill Jockey. Recorded live at home in Chicago over the course of one night when Wong and Minekawa passed through on tour, Exit Future Heart showcases a program of spontaneous compositions that flow through mutated tropes of rock music, focused ambient/kosmische synthesis, and expanses of raw textural sculpting. The singular performance styles and improvisatory gestures of each member of the quintet fuse into a delicate interplay charged more by open spaces and deep listening than by overload or abandon. Takako Minekawa and Natalie Chami chase each other through the mix with layered angelic vocalizations that flit from operatic highs to close-mic whispers. Minekawa's flute-like Casio tones, prominently featured in her catalog of seminal shibuya-kei pop albums starting in the mid-90s, cut through in moments of colorful melody and hover in clouds of restrained pointillist harmony. As in her solo recordings under the name TALsounds, Chami's signature Juno organ chords and cascading monophonic Moog blips compound through live looping and processing into the undulating bedrock of each session. Dustin Wong's guitar shines in passages of crystalline clean tone picking and rockets into bursts of effect-soaked abstraction, capturing the glowing precision of his solo albums and the optimistic energy of his former noise/rock band, Ponytail. When he's not painting the mix with smeared arpeggios and quivering synth textures, Doug Kaplan (one half of Chicago label Hausu Mountain) locks with Wong into tiered guitar riffs. In step with the frantic, style-mashing electronic arrangements of his solo project Mukqs, Maxwell Allison (the other half of Hausu Mountain) steers a rig of synths and drum machines through shifting IDM-esque bass and drum patterns, steady krautrock-inspired beats, and bleeping 8-bit square wave patches. Channeling a varied palette of sounds at their disposal, the Dustin Wong + Takako Minekawa + Good Willsmith quintet's extended improvisations segue through contrasting atmospheres and emotional zones. Rock backbeats pulse behind dense clouds of guitar and voice before fading into clattering arrhythmia. Empty passages embodying the Japanese notion of "ma" (or intervals of negative space) erupt for short moments with individual interjections before sinking back into near nothingness. Design by Daniel Castrejón. Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri.
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UR 105LP
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2017 release. Music for post-apocalyptic deserts. Experimental synth-sounds with hypnotic percussions -- imagine Moondog performing with John Carpenter and Cabaret Voltaire. Relating to their live appearances, Phantom Horse might be named a lazy combo since they are not to be found on stage all too often. Yet their withdrawn approach fits this album very well; Als Ob is once more a journey through inwardness, a contemplative excursion to the electronic outback, still friendly asking for your attention. There's plenty of things to discover if you listen mindfully; the Phantom Horse rides out where you as a listener like to be lonely. Those ancient synths are still around, playing their melodies as if* there were no time thieves waiting around the corner (*That is what "Als Ob" means). Altogether, the sound has become more electric yet not eclectic, the duo has de-krauted, describing their sound as "more ritual", but of course avoiding any kind of mysticism and fairy-tale dullness. Since 2015's Different Forces (also on Umor Rex), Phantom Horse have fleshed out their friendly stoicism that hauls their experimental synth sounds into the area of songs -- maybe even pop songs that aren't tangible at least. Welcome to the insular state of Phantom Horse.
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UR 058LP
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2013 release. Shareek Hayaat is the second album by Safiyya, the duo formed by Brad Rose and Pat Murano. Brad Rose is the head of the Digitalis label, and he is also well known for his work as The North Sea, Charlatan, and Altar Eagle. Pat Murano, head of Kelippah Records, has also worked under the name Decimus, and as a member of the venerable No Neck Blues Band. When Max Ernst said that the forest was a supernatural insect and a drawing board, Pat Murano and Brad Rose hadn't been born yet, but this odd couple of fine woodcutters would one day grow up to prove his point with sounds. What kind of sounds? Electronic and organic, the sounds derived from the intricate and layered process one can expect from wizards like Brad Rose and Pat Murano. Do you need to speak Arabic to decode their stuff? Maybe... The title of each track seems to allude to some kind of archetype and to describe a stage in some sort of ritual. Maybe there's a specific meaning tied to the words, but feel free to project your own. The important thing to keep in mind is that there is some kind of black rite happening in the deepest part of the woods (or the desert), and Murano and Rose are the ones in charge of setting the mood and deranging the senses. Hacky mediums need not apply. This is how you conjure the spirits and direct them through sound; this here indeterminate musical object is the real deal. Let's say music is a walled country and noise is the barbarous wasteland where cartographers fear to tread. In between, there's a wild and dark forest, a forest of terror and wonder: that's Safiyya, that's Shareek Hayaat. You can picture it as a shape-shifting image of the forest as a supernatural bug, doodled on a drawing board with the alchemy of musical and non-musical instruments. If you like brilliance with your weirdness, and you'd like to take a trip down to the land between music and noise, this one's for you. Includes download coupon; edition of 300.
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UR 117CS
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2018 release. Best known for playing guitar for Britain's legendary post-punk trailblazers Wire since 2010, Matthew Simms assumes his nom de plume Slows to craft slow and serene instrumentals. Recorded throughout winter in his small studio space in the Kent (UK) countryside, Enormous Pause comprises passages of electric organ and modular synth, variously droning and rumbling across two gorgeous, side-length pieces. In addition to Slows and Wire, Simms is also a core member of dream poppers It Hugs Back and improv supergroup UUUU, while increasingly in demand as a producer and session musician, recently working with Chastity Belt and Bill Fay. "This is the first time I've recorded music knowing it was going to released on cassette," says Simms. "I was reminded of how I first started recording music when I was 12 on a four-track; of the fantastic effect it has on capturing overdriven sounds." Improvisation is at the core of Slows' music, Simms attempting to come up with at least one entirely original piece for every live show he plays under the name. Much of the music on Enormous Pause originated while preparing to play opening slots for two of his favorite bands: Chicago's Tortoise and London's Tomaga. The result is two ethereal sides of gossamer keyboard melodies, buoyed by analog warmth as they slowly move through space echo chambers. This is easily some of Simms most impulsive and varied solo to date, flowing freely between cosmic synth ambience and the all manner of tape-distorted emotion without ever ceasing to engage deeply with the listener.
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UR 122LP
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Sol Oosel presents an album with a complex mixture of tones and structures, striking a close relation between a sort of devotional music and a trancelike state. Beyond his own specific exploration of the possibilities of electronic modular synthesis, Sol Oosel searches for hacks in different states of consciousness by way of sound. En allégeance à l'inconnaissable - Une étude en chorégraphie pour le flux d'énergie is meant as a musical aid for visualizing the ability to dance with and manipulate attainable flows of energy. Largely produced using modular synthesizers and the Roland SH-09, Sol Oosel stretches beyond the fields of ambient music, adding a special sense of drama to this psychoactive journey. Each song is built around solid structures and infused with a mystical atmosphere. Harmonically, this album is close to Hans-Joachim Roedelius' early works; it is emotionally positive, informed by pop nuances that are rarely found in this type of ambient music. Sol Oosel also owes to the works of Klaus Schulze; however, while Schulze was concerned with space and made music of the unknown but conceivable cosmos in his mind, Sol Oosel is more interested in Earth and the force that weighs us down in this complex physical reality. His music speculates on the relationships between inner and outer worlds. En allégeance à l'inconnaissable... is a soundscape and a choreographic exercise for relaxation, intentionally disrupted by "Here (Au Bord De L'Univers)", a deconstructive piece covered in multiple layers of repetition, progressive beats, and kosmische pulsation which detours from the flow. In a way, it represents the bridge between all these cosmic and earthly energies. This is Sol Oosel's debut on Umor Rex. He previously self-released the album Janus, and was member of several bands and projects before focusing in Sol Oosel. He lives in the rural village of Tepoztlán, México, where he works as an artist, performer, sculptor, sonic landscaper, and dancer.
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