Ricardo Villalobos - Dependent And Happy (2012)

Ear-bending, trippy minimal techno from the master.  When first released, Dependent And Happy took the form of two and a half hours of music across twelve sides of vinyl; shortly afterwards, 11 of the 14 tracks were mixed down into this fully-segued 78 minute CD.  Airy, atmospheric and never boring even when it seems there's very little going on, this is expertly-produced electronic music that suits any level of concentration.  Traffic sounds, odd voices, minute variations in the drum tracks and more keep offering a fresh experience no matter how many times you return to it.

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Ricardo Villalobos at SGTG:

Fizheuer Zieheuer

Vasco

Re: ECM

Safe In Harbour

Plastikman - Sheet One (1993)

An hour of minimal techno, nice and acidy sounding (and famously including artwork made to look like a blotter sheet) from Richie Hawtin in the album that launched his Plastikman alias.  This hypnotically static music is at its best over extended tracks, and Plasticity is first to set off on a long, winding trip.  Glob and Plasticine are my favourites here for the same reason, and in between there are plenty of shorter ventures into creating near-ambient atmospheres, with the same evergreen bleeps and splodges of classic acid bass.  Eternally durable journeys for the mind and body.

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Conrad Schnitzler / Pyrolator - Con-Struct (2015)

"Con-Struct" is a series of albums whereby Conrad Schnitzler's archive of sounds was opened up to contemporary German musicians, with releases beginning in 2011 (the year Schnitzler died).  This one I probably picked up around the same time as those two early Pyrolator albums featured at the start of this blog (links below), and it's Kurt Dahlke's latter-day sound that takes the Schnitzler building blocks here and gives them a sleek techno sheen.

After a tantalising ambient drift of an introduction, Pyrolator's Con-Struct album takes a few tracks to warm up into something genuinely special, but then hits cruising altitude with a series of winning con-structions.  Some of these could almost sit comfortably on a contemporary Ostgut Ton album (now my absolute favourite label for new electronic releases).  All the tracks have numerical titles, as per late-period Schnitzler's general practice, and my personal picks are the minimalism of 316-2, the pleasantly bouncy 287-13, and the club-ready sequences of 316-16.

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Conrad Schnitzler at SGTG:
Grün
Con
Consequenz
Contempora
Con 3
Congratulacion
Pyrolator at SGTG:
Inland
Pyrolator's Wunderland

Robert Hood - Internal Empire (1994)

Classic minimal techno from one of the original Detroit masters.  Got hold of this one when I felt I was concentrating too much on Perlon-style minimalism and could do with an object lesson from the old school; this is minimal techno where although very little happens (subtle developments still always there for the discovery), it's melodic and full of machine soul.

All of the 11 tracks on this CD edition (the original 2x 12" had seven tracks in a different order, one of which is missing here) get straight to the point, and only average about five minutes apiece.  This self-contained approach, without segues, lets each track stand on its own merits - and they certainly do just that.  Home and Chase are my absolute favourites here, but more emerges from the others with every listen.

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Black Dog Productions - Bytes (1993)

Exquisitely produced and still-vital techno compilation from the original Black Dog stable of Ken Downie, Andy Turner and Ed Handley, aka (depending on who was taking the creative lead) Plaid, IAO, Xeper, The Discordian Popes etc etc.  After Warp Records' Artificial Intelligence series had set out its stall with an eponymous compilation that demonstrated their "electronic listening music" ethos, and given its first album release to Richard D James with Surfing On Sine Waves, Bytes was Artificial Intelligence #3.

Just about every single track here is essential electronica, so to name a few personal favourites: the pulsing motorik groove of Carceres Ex Novum, the warped earworm melodies of Yamemm and Merck, the full-on percussive assault of Fight The Hits... but it's all great stuff.  Despite officially being a compilation, Bytes is every inch an album, all bearing the hallmarks of these three electronic music virtuosos and well sequenced.  In the words of that first AI compilation: "Are you sitting comfortably? Artificial Intelligence is for long journeys, quiet nights and club-drowsy dawns. Listen with an open mind."

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Orbital - s/t [aka The Brown Album, or Orbital 2 in the US] (1993)

Dug out this album thanks to Acid Brass from last week - went on a wee nostalgia trip of late 80s/90s dancey electronica.  An hour of classic Kraftwerkian techno bookended by a couple of jokey nods to Steve Reich's early tape work - seems ideal for posting here.

By 1992, Orbital's Hartnoll brothers had broken on the dance scene with a home cassette-deck recording (the immortal Chime) and released a solid first album.  The second was produced with a new level of confidence and skill, from the introductory tape-phase looping of Worf from Star Trek TNG (introduced on their 'Green' debut) to the more fully-realised album coherence and buildup of each track's elements.

There's enough acid squelch on the likes of Remind and Lush 3-2 to link to Orbital's roots,  but throughout the Brown Album lots of other details reward deep listening.  The sitar colourings on Planet Of The Shapes, which also has a sample from Withnail & I synced in perfect rhythm; on Walk Now, the only time I've ever enjoyed listening to a didgeridoo.... it's an album offering great variety.  My absolute favourite thing here is the 20 minute stretch that takes in the gradually-mutating Lush 3-1/3-2 and melodic highlight Impact (The Earth Is Burning), but the lovely Halcyon + On + On isn't far behind.  A hugely recommended album to anyone wanting to hear a classic of 90s electronic music that continues to age well.

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See also at SGTG: Underworld - Everything, Everything / Polygon Window - Surfing On Sine Waves

Cybotron - Enter (1983)

Electro-rock classic from the first rays of techno's dawn.  Juan Atkins, one of the Detroit godfathers, recorded these tracks with collaborator Richard Davis; the latter favoured more of an arena-rock approach, which meant that this seminal duo wouldn't last, but here it just seems to work, widdly guitar solos and all.  For me the album tracks work best when at their most stripped back and minimal-electronic - Alleys Of Your Mind sounds like it could've been an early Mute single, not long after Warm Leatherette.  El Salvador is another favourite, as I'm a sucker for a good vocoder.

Contrary to my usual practice, bonus tracks (largely post-album singles, although Cosmic Cars appears to be virtually identical to the album version) have been kept in place here.  Quite simply, they're utterly essential, showing Atkins edging more and more toward his dream of a Parliament-Kraftwerk fission reaction that was about to explode into full-on Detroit techno.

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Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album (1996)

4th album by Richard D. James under his most familiar moniker - presumably why it starts off the quite wonderful '4'.  As well as pushing the limits of his interest in jungle breakbeats skittering all over the place, this is a nice, compact little record bursting with melody, sweetness and freshness - the Pet Sounds of 90s UK electronica perhaps?  Certainly on the gorgeous plucked strings of Goon Gumpas and Girl/Boy Song.  A thoroughly satisfying way to spend 32 minutes - nothing outstays its welcome, and there's always tiny little details that grab you on repeated listens.

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Previously posted on SGTG: Surfing On Sine Waves

Underworld - Everything, Everything (2000)

‘Imagine Bowie working with Kraftwerk – not in the past, but round about now’ was how Underworld was pitched to me in the late 90s by a fan who was trying to get me to see beyond ‘Born Slippy’s breakthrough on the Trainspotting soundtrack.  So imagine I did – sleek, precise electronica that still feels organic, still gets played live by human beings; and a cut-up surrealist, darkly poetic stream of consciousness over the top – pretty much on the nose for summing up Underworld in this purple patch of their career, which regrettably didn’t entirely survive the departure of DJ/producer/programmer Darren Emerson shortly afterwards.

But this phase of Underworld definitely ended in style – witness this brilliant live document of a May 1999 performance in Brussels.  Karl Hyde’s electrifying presence as frontman is very much in evidence, and all the songs sound great, with an extra freshness from being performed live; the only minor tradeoff being a slight loss of some of the subtleties of the studio albums.  Jumbo, from 1999’s Beaucoup Fish, is my favourite here, possibly as it’s the most understated track, and thus gets more room to breathe.  The concert movie that was released shortly afterwards adds a few more tracks, and shows even more plainly what a great live band Underworld are.  In a note from the CD sleeve that just dates it perfectly, the concert was to be ‘available on DVD and VHS in October 2000’.

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Carl Craig & Moritz Von Oswald - ReComposed (2008)

Is this classical music? Is it techno?  That classic yellow banner/logo on the cover would suggest the former, but the two artists' names definitely point to the latter; a Detroit/Berlin clash of the titans.  As with the other releases in DG's ReComposed series, which ran from 2005-2012, the intention was (at least in the early releases) to meld some of the label's most famous recordings with 21st century electronica, with varying degrees of success.

After an ambient intro, the familiar rhythm of Ravel's Bolero creeps in as Movement 1 starts.  The obvious thing to expect next would be that long, winding melody, which in itself might have sounded great.  But in a masterstroke of less-is-more, the melody never comes.  Instead, we're introduced to little brass fragments, barely there at first, then a main loop that sounds distinctively off-key.  It soon makes sense, however, once intertwined with other similar loops.  The Bolero rhythm marches on, and by Movement 3 starts to morph fully into a techno track, which increasingly squeezes out all of the classical elements by Movement 4.

After a short interlude, where the beat gradually dissolves into another ambient haze, the rest of the album consists of two long movements that this time take Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition as the source material.  Again, only judicious sampling is done from the classical works, although these last two movements (where I gather Von Oswald is the one taking the lead) sound more lush and less overtly techno.  My favourite of these two is the final track on the album, where the orchestral sampling becomes more indistinct and distorted, as if Craig and Von Oswald were working from a crumbling cassette rather than the pristine masters on the album cover. The rhythm track here is less dancefloor-friendly and much more chillout room, winding down the album to a subtle finish.

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Ricardo Villalobos - Fizheuer Zieheuer (2006)

A discovery from one of those magical nights on YouTube, where each recommendation leads you somewhere new.  Think I was listening to some Steve Reich or Philip Glass odds & ends when I stumbled upon Fizheuer Zieheuer, and spent the next half hour plus just sitting in amazement of how such spare ingredients could make up a track this unique and addictive.

Villalobos, firstly, is a Chilean-born German DJ and electronic musician, working mainly in the minimal techno genre.  I haven't really taken to the main body of his work as yet, to be honest - might be in the zone for it at some point - but his work with kindred spirit Max Loderbauer has appealed to me, which includes an ECM remix project (will probably post that once I've got into it more deeply), and a solid studio-album collaboration from last year under the name Vilod.

Fizheuer Zieheuer, then, was released in 2006 as possibly the longest CD single in history - two tracks totalling 72 minutes.  The title track takes two samples from a Yugoslavian brass band track from 1980, and skilfully loops the main ostinato over and over into infinity.  The beats ensure that this never gets boring - like Manuel Göttsching's E2-E4, the background is constantly shifting in its texture, the loops sometimes taking a back seat before coming back into focus.  Track 2, Fizbeast, goes even more ultra-minimal by leaving out the brass altogether, putting the spotlight squarely on Villalobos' beat-shaping skills. I've listened to Fizbeast at work a few times, at low volume, if I need to concentrate on a repetitive task.  Music for spreadsheets.

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Unit Moebius - s/t (1992)

Time to up the tempo again.  Nothing fancy, just a 41-minute slab of brain frying Dutch acid/minimal techno, recorded on a rickety cassette deck and self-funded by squat parties.  A label writeup describes "twelve hours of non-stop comatose acid-house music, no lights but heavy strobes and a very freaked out audience (partially due to the strong and pure LSD sold by one of the Unit Moebius members) of punks, squatters, junkies and patients from two nearby psychiatric institutes".  Quite an image to have in your mind when listening to 17 minutes of 'Panta Rhei' drilling its way into your skull.

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