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12"
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VLEK 027EP
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After his LP on Hivern Discs, Music For Documentaries, Brussels-based producer Lawrence Le Doux returns to Vlek for his next offering, Host. And what a project it has become: Le Doux, heads first, dived deep into the Belgian national history of electronic music, and came up with a sampler covering the various fields the Belgians. From digi-dub over simple drum computer house to one-man industrial cassettes, Host has it all. Lawrence Le Doux opened for Matias Aguayo in one of Brussels's major venues: Ancienne Belgique. VLEK designer Dimitri Runkkarri's provides an analog type press/glass printing process for the sleeve.
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7"
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VLEK 026EP
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Former half of Pitch & Hold, Simon Halsberghe steps up on Brussels's Vlek with his debut solo EP as Simon Hold. "Maqam Bruxelloise" reflects the wide-angle beauty and compelling diversity of the Belgian capital. Across a finely layered interplay of synthetic modulations and intricate polyrhythms, Hold arranges pattern-welded textures and prismatic synth motifs according to an interpretation of the traditional Arabic maqam system of improvisation. The gritty "Dhajij Doux" is a more disquieting, bipolar audio scenario. A truly haunting gem with a lead-heavy amalgam of sizzling bass and jagged drum work.
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12"
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VLEK 025EP
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Yann Leguay is a Brussels-based French Artist. His approach to sound design for installation, performance, and film centers on the materiality of sound. He has participated in numerous exhibitions and festival in Europe and beyond and has composed soundtracks for films. Yann Leguay's work focuses on everything around sound. By modifying the reality of the material (as sounds or real objects) he affects the sensibility of the viewer, changing the perception and relation with materiality. By deconstructing the elements of this human need, he gives an overview and a distance on the global relation we have with objects and memory.
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12"
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VLEK 024EP
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A slice of international oddball rap from Baleine 3000, a group composed of Belgian producer Lawrence Le Doux, French DJ Afrojaws, and Japanese MC Illreme. The Nap features seven cuts of soft, dreamy beats, vinyl fuzz, and delicate verses that speak to hip-hop's universal appeal and ability to transcend boundaries. As Illreme puts it on The Nap, "the story is always over on the way. When does this story end?" Sleeve created on an analog typewriter in the VLEK workshop by Dimitri Runkkari. Hand-carved vinyl art by Jeff Ablezot (carved on side B of the master & duplicated).
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12"
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VLEK 022EP
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Brussels' Michael "Weird Dust" Crabbé & Ernesto "Bear Bones, Lay Low" González play electronic music to dance and trip out to as Tav Exotic, using all kinds of machines except goddamn laptops.
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12"
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VLEK 019EP
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With Les Horizons, his second release on Vlek, Brussels resident Aymeric de Tapol delivers seven tracks that explore his love of ghostly drones and proto-techno pulses. Enigmatic, dark, yet comfortable, these pieces shed light on another side of his already large pallet of creative zones. Through de Tapol's detailed evocations, things happening at that boundary become attractions in their own right, and you listen closer and closer until the scintillation of the aural image comes to an end.
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12"
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VLEK 021EP
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Lawrence le Doux returns to Belgium's Vlek label following 2014's Terrestre 12" (VLEK 016EP) with four tracks of playful, hauntologically-minded electronica and techno. The mesmerizing loops and analog gyre of "Floor" ensnare the listener and neatly segue into "Liquide," on which a sublime mist of gentle hiss settles over unworldly synths and a metronomic beat. "Pollution" deploys a meandering melody to simple yet devastating effect before giving way to scattergun metallic percussion. The organic, bass-led "Story" is a beatless coda that exemplifies the EP's sense of nostalgia for the future. Eight-pass letterpressed sleeve designed by Dimitri Runkkari. Edition of 300.
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12"
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VLEK 018EP
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Truly emotional; tight, groovy rhythms travelling within layers of the deepest dark dub. Familiar but new. Precise funk made of techno frequencies. Reverb and delays that bring butter to your ears, melting the earth onto your body. "Melt" has a rhythmic pattern and synths that pop up like a living, breathing organism. "Earth" is the landscape: you can visualize it. "Organs" is your brain thinking about a better dance-world and "Body" is what remains to dance, like the old Gescom records used to. As usual, sleeve is hand-printed at the workshop with a mix of offset and letterpress.
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12"
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VLEK 017EP
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Belgian producer Brice Dreessen aka Lowcommittee has signed to the cult Vlek label for the release of Race at Neon Club. Featuring eight tracks of dazzling electronic soundscapes, this 12" sees Dreessen fulfill the promise of his early work to deliver a beautiful, if at times unsettling, work that ranges from blissful interstellar ambience through to disorientating experimental noise and industrial rhythms. "23E4" features sparkling synths blinking in and out of existence, "1943" focuses on brittle synths and hollow turbines, "Diptych" sounds like an orchestra of old radios tuned to ancient transmissions, and much more.
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12"
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VLEK 016EP
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Four house- and techno-inspired dancefloor tracks from Lawrence La Doux, a Brussels producer who has released under various aliases over the years. This four-track 12" EP for Vlek shapes styles until the distortion the artist forces upon them passes from the uncomfortable to the pleasant. "Afruita" features a steady, pulsing rhythm with a sun-soaked melodic line. "Astre" is just as steady but mellower. "Chorus" features the interplay between a steady four-to-the-floor kick and a bouncing bass. "Terre" concludes the EP with angular, twisted chords that shine bright one moment and disappear in a fog of filter the next.
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12"
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VLEK 015EP
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The Brussels-based Aymeric de Tapol is a prolific producer of audio across styles and mediums. With Winter Dance he's found a sound that's perfectly at home on Vlek. These six mossy drone compositions seem to reflect de Tapol's interest in "climatic" music: their ingredients are simple but there is a real sense of space and life to them, as if the producer has not created them so much as simply captured them in their natural habitat. Sounds blossom, proliferate and die away, their surfaces cracked and pitted with the everyday detritus of life; even the uncanniest moments have a strangely comforting warmth to them.
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12"
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VLEK 014EP
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A three-armed entity consisting of Sagat, &Apos, and Walrus, Bepotel build sonic landscapes. They have previous releases for Meakusma, Lamadameaveclechien, and for their own eponymous imprint. Kikkerkelik marks the trio's first release for Vlek. From the driving techno chaos of the title-track, through the swirling synthetic groves of "Kaketu" and the Detroit-echoes of "Swth Central," these are analog stories of dim underpasses and the faded miasma of industrialized skylines. Psychedelic, evocative, and consistently effective, these four cuts linger long after listeners emerge from the cracked "Wormhole" that rounds off proceedings. Housed in a hand-crafted, letter pressed sleeve and limited to 500 copies.
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12"
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VLEK 013EP
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Recently featured in Ben Klock's FABRIC66 mix, Sagat is making his way up in techno circles around the globe. This is his second effort, an extra-limited release on Belgium's Vlek records, with a gorgeously-crafted screenprinted sleeve.
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12"
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VLEK 012EP
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Hailing from the Belgian capital of Brussels, Squeaky Lobster is known to his mother as Laurent and used to play bass in rock and jazz bands. Nowadays, however, you're more likely to find him pushing buttons on stage ensuring the system in turn pumps out his heady concoctions of chest-pummeling bass and skittering beats. Squeaky Lobster keeps things close to home on Belgian label, Vlek Records, also based in Brussels.
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10"
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VLEK 009EP
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Ssaliva has been very active lately with releases on Vlek and Ramp as Cupp Cave. This is Ssaliva's second EP on Vlek. Eight tracks of a vibe that's been dubbed by XLR8R as "soaked in codeine and smoked to the gills." The sleeve was made on a full analog letterpress with original artwork by Dimitri Runkkari (responsible for the critically-acclaimed first Ssaliva cover). Pressed on bright pink vinyl in a limited edition.
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12"
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VLEK 007EP
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Sagat is Vlek Records' new recruit. This young Belgian delivers here a fresh serving of foggy techno. From the dancefloor-friendly title track to the more introvert "ESC," you're in for a trip through Belgium's finest electronic craftsmanship. This is a departure from Vlek's regular output and their first venture to 4x4 territories. But as always, they chose their guide carefully. Hop aboard.
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7"
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VLEK 005EP
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This is the third volume of the four-volume split 7" compilation. DZA hits us with an ice-cold triumphant banger here. The unstoppable force of the track picks up more and more snappy percussive elements, engaging drum patterns and even some '80s-style vocal sample solos. Herrmutt Lobby dodge meteors and return enemy fire in their intergalactic space funk laboratory with this unidentified flying-funk opus. Richard Colvaen shows us his versatility by bringing a chilled-out, deep, slightly mournful feel to the table. Hand-numbered limited edition of 300; includes insert.
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10"
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VLEK 003EP
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Cupp Cave's glitchy beats have stood out as some of the most innovative and rich amongst today's electronic hip-hop producers. But he doesn't stop at just making dope beats, he crafts universes, oceans deep and mountains high and serves up busted-gaming-console-and-dusted-broken-beat concentrate, filtered through a tub of radioactive waste to devastating effect. This EP sees Cupp Cave return to his one true love: making sloppy Chicagoesque beats. Housed in a hand-screenprinted, hand-made, numbered cover.
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10"
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VLEK 004EP
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The highly anticipated Squeaky Lobster EP has been worth every second of the wait. In terms of sample/synth selection, song structure and sound quality, no expense has been spared. Hi-fi synthetic drums intertwine with lo-fi sampled kicks & snares while heavy, stretched-out synth bass lines are topped with Bollywood-esque string samples, '80s guitar bridges & plenty of other orchestral mayhem. The incredible feat here is that no 8 bars are quite the same as the next. Housed in an awesome spot-varnished cover -- definitely one to hang up on the wall.
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7"
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VLEK 001EP
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Cupp Cave was once heralded as Belgium's best-kept secret. From the U.S. to Japan, his glitchy beats have stood out as some of the most innovative amongst today's electronic hip-hop producers. Here he serves up busted-gaming-console-and-dusted-broken-beat concentrate, filtered through a tub of radioactive waste to devastating effect. Dem Hunger's "Caveman Smack" reeks of human corpses decaying on the floor with their eyes dangling out of their sockets. It's all skulls bashed up in the river with the music sort of just floating around.
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7"
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VLEK 002EP
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Brussels-based Squeaky Lobster's cosmic craft has to be heard to be believed. Shards of broken breakbeat litter the sea-bed and form a solid backbone for this invertebrate's innovative use of samples, synths and instrumentation, taking you out of the aquarium and into the abyss. Russian beat-maker Lapti scavenges most of his samples right off VHS or dictaphone tapes. Melodies you've never heard, together with familiar retro samples and masterfully-produced hip-hop instrumentals create a nostalgic and cinematic mood.
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