Tag: techno

REVIEW: Mazut – Sarajevo (2021)

Released in 2021 on the Polish label Positive Regression, Warsaw-based duo Mazut’s Sarajevo is a driving industrialized Techno EP free of the Industrial genre’s tackier connotations.

Reminiscent of the early works of Front 242, Sarajevo’s Industrial framework is a maximalist fantasy built from a plethora of minimalist motifs. The 4 song EP has a clicky analog tonality- plenty of warmth, with cold electronic drafts. Go-Go percussion is pressed into the ‘4 on the floor’ mold of Techno creating driving rigidity with dance persuasion.

Mazut articulate the intrinsic beauty of mechanical function. Countless motifs interlock and counteract in dense, lengthy tracks. In this way, Sarajevo comes across as a spiritual companion to Post-Modern artist Chris Burden’s sculpture Metropolis II, in which hundreds of 1:64-scale toy cars fly around an abstract model city in traffic purgatory.

Art, as artifice, will always have shortcomings if it attempts to react and express in a literal manner (this could be said for derivative works too). It’s important to let our environment speak through us, dictated not by our literal perception of our environment but by the environment’s emotional presence within ourselves. What makes a record like Mazut’s Sarajevo or Ouxh’s Machines in Care worthwhile is their ability to channel the expression of this presence through the appropriate thematic textures and musicality. This is only one tool in the kit of craft, but what does it say about the work itself?

The cohabitation of machine and human is perhaps the definitive trait of our current age. Humanity’s identity crisis between animal and mechanical has been pondered endlessly in sci-fi and horror works, and this doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. In the case of Sarajevo, somewhere between technological and organic, Mazut presents the human identity as it sounds.

Should you choose to watch the Metropolis II documentary, consider re-watching it with the original audio muted while playing this album. It’s incredibly fitting!

For fans of: Front 242, KLF, Filmmaker

Like Mazut? Give these a listen: Ouxh, Schwefelgelb, VOM

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REVIEW: VTSS – Identity Process (2019)

If relentless pounding Techno is your jam, you better get out the toast for this record. Not to be confused with the goofball festival that is cyber goth, Identity Process sounds Industrial in quite a literal way.

Bring The Noize opens the album with its rough and relentless mechanical tonality and textures. It’s beautifully hypnotic in a way that’s similar to a high functioning fully-automated assembly line. The whole album is like this, though finds its softer side (albeit still pounding) by closing track Devil-may-care.

Warsaw-born, London-based DJ and producer Martyna Maja started putting out music under the moniker VTSS since 2018, releasing their debut EP Self Will on the German label Intrepid Skin that same year. Identity Process is an exciting listen both as a stand alone record and as a release only 1 year into Maja’s trajectory as a producer. I look forward to hearing the many avenues which VTSS may go down in the coming years, and their interpretations and distinctions as an artist in an Electronic medium.

VTSS’s forthcoming 12” EP Projections is slated for an early 2022 release and is now open for pre-orders on Bandcamp. You can go stream 1 track from the album, Trust Me, right here.

For fans of: Regis, Front 242, Schwefelgelb

Like VTSS? Give these a listen: Ouxh, Tommy Holohan, Choking Chain

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REVIEW: Jacek Sienkiewics – Mirrors (2007)

Mirrors is a 2007 EP release by Polish electronic artist and Recognition Records label founder Jacek Sienkiewics. Working as a suite of mood pieces most cohesive on the record’s B-side, Mirrors is repetitive nearly to the point of being hypnotic- enjoyable, though not particularly engaging.

A-side and titular track Mirrors is a quickly revolving showcase of small motifs which sit atop the track’s underlying soft arpeggiated synth-lines, aggressively cut into with glitchy kicks and abrasive synth pads. All of this comes across a bit busy, with no one motif ever quite growing to a greater power within the song. It’s a track that could have ultimately done a little more with a little less.

Mirrors‘s B-side, on the other hand, consists of tracks Drunken Master and 350. The former is a delightfully wonky work of arcade-esque foot thumping and hatcheting hi-hats which carry the punch reminiscent of early 8-bit video games. Continuing this drive albeit with a much more smooth sound is closing track 350. Previous arpeggiated blips now seemingly float away to the sonic periphery in a wash of darkening reverb. The sleek and cool 350, along with the rest of Mirrors, continues to work best as backing mood piece to a would-be video game rather than dance floor worship piece.

Ultimately, Mirrors‘s disinterest in engaging the active listener keeps the album from being a particularly worthwhile listen, but finds strong footing in repetitive and passive listening environments. I recommend giving it a spin the next time you decide to bust out a bullet-hell side-scroller.

For fans of: Aphex Twin, Rhode & Brown, Casiopepe

Like Jacek Sienkiewics? Give these a listen: Ouxh, DJ Seinfeld, Mom$

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REVIEW: Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion – WAP (Asquith 90s Techno Remix) (2020)

It was a song, then a hit, then a meme, and now a variant of that meme can be bought for 2 pounds online.

Now backed by fast pounding techno rhythms and a high-hat that sounds like Spongebob’s shoe, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s already hyper-sexual lyrical delivery is pushed to it’s cartoonish climax (no pun intended).

Seriously though, the Asquith techno remix of WAP is cartoonish, and almost not worth mentioning if it wasn’t for how absurd it is. But maybe that’s what it takes in today’s day and age to achieve independent success. Aside from those backed heavily by the industry (and even then), what success now isn’t a child of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty’s 1988 book The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way)?

For fans of: Peaches, Benny Benassi, Machine Girl

Enjoy WAP (Asquith 90s Techno Remix)? Give these a listen: Chicks on Speed, Faces of Bass, Ulisess

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REVIEW: Mom$ – Rave Shit 2 (2018)

Stunted by inconsistent leveling, clipping and mixing, Rave Shit 2 functions more as a mixtape or sketchbook of ideas. Yet Mom$ delivers more than sonic sketches. RS2 is a showcase of simple yet fully fledged ideas from beginning to end. Its choppy nature and bass heavy presence lends itself to the hip-hop and dance tracks it samples while simultaneously giving each track a level of raw edge.

Mom$’ presentation is textbook E-kid; retro interpretation of the internet’s early years, digital trash glitching and anime cyberpunk iconography. Korg synth swells and kicks that sound like they’re coming through the wall sandwich the 90s-styled triplet stabs and filtered samples. Ultimately, Mom$’ style of techno and house is interchangeable with many other records out there in a flooded electronic music market. So while it may not be a particularly distinguished record, RS2 is great fun and I encourage anyone interested to give it a listen.

For fans of: Lord Lorenz, Filmmaker, Machine Girl

Like Mom$? Give these a listen: E•motion, Ulisess, MegaZoneEx

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