12rec.net

Well, not really. Just a short impression. Zzzzz…

German Postrockers Hermelin just finished their new album. As guitarist Eddi told me, they’re not quite sure what do with it, maybe we’ll get the chance to share their beautiful music with you… time will tell, stay tuned and check these links:

Hermelin @ home
Hermelin @ myspace
Hermelin @ 12rec.

My new Mixtape will included a couple of tracks aiming at the dancefloor more than all the other mixes I’ve done throughout the years. Here’s a beta-version of the playlist (no guarantee though):

01 – Orange Crush – Across the Breeze
02 – Stig Inge – Influences
03 – Bobby Baby – Bobby (Rupert’s HighVoltage Disco Remix)
04 – Super Multifaros – We are Giants
05 – El Senor Ciuf Ciuf – I Think I Saw a Dead Person Walking Yesterday
06 – AMbandet – Hours Disappear When You are Dancing Here
07 – Bubblyfish – Peripheral
08 – Lukas Scholler – Milchig Trüb
09 – Emil Klotzsch – Geteiltes Sein
10 – MB-ent – Izhevsk Somehand
11 – Heezen – Crashed Cars
12 – Alexandr Vatagin – Maybe Baby
13 – Porcelain in the Backpack – Silent Giants
14 – Herzog – Perhaps She’d Like to See Me Fall Apart
15 – Tsukimono – Black on Grey

The title will be “Terrain to Roam”, it’ll be online at Mixotic till the end of Sepemtber. Watch out!

Kriipis Tulo and Mahi Bukimi form the duo Astrowind. Travelling the rusty railroad between Riga and the white shores of the Baltic Sea, they met in 2003 to perform a few live improvisations on old Soviet synthesizers. Things did seem to work out and Astrowind decided to go ahead with their cinematic music. I got in contact with Tulo and Bukimi for my review of their debut EP “The Night the Stars Flew” which has been released at the Russian ElectroSound-Netlabel. Immediately I fell in love with their beautiful and anachronistic Paleopsychedelic Ambient (as Astrowind term their music) and was happy to hear that there is a couple of new tracks waiting for a release. That’s how “Into Vernadsky” came to be.

While the debut was more like watching the stars on a windy night, “Into Vernadsky” has a rather oceanic feel. “Welcome to the Past” starts off with fat sonar-like bleeps while the harmonic synth- and organ-chords in the back seem to pass tons of salty water before they reach your ear. The second song, mysteriously entitled “Rusty Trumpet of Youth”, has a similar feel. Squeaking synthesizers and a millions bubbles beneath. The “Connections of Everything”-trilogy afterwards marks the slow ascension from the bottom of the ocean to the bright and lovely shores atop. If you are a fan of the Herzog EP we released in May 2007, maybe you dig these tunes, too. Despite all the differences.

The second half of “Into Vernadsky” EP begins with “Vernadsky Choice”. Astrowind combine sweet organ-chords with a crackling and hissing synthesizer pulse. Check the Jean-Michel Jarre filter sweeps! At position seven, “Starry Night Horseriding” takes on a slightly more resolute temper. Very dense, you can imagine the starlight landscape taking a flight before your eyes. “I’d Like to Return” is the last song before the EP fades out with the final tune “Blake”. There is a strong atmosphere of menace in it, a certain kind of tension… haunting. Reminds me of German Krautrock pioneers Cluster- and that is the best I can give!

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Into Vernadsky @ 12rec.net (hit this link for direct download)

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Everything started when “Sky Diaries“, the original EP by young fellow Fred Baty a.k.a. Crepusculum, was released at 12rec.net in December 2006. It was a five song album comprised solely of incredible acoustic music, composed with a guitar and some decent electronic enhancements. His music left me completely stunned and I immediately thought that the pureness of Fred’s guitar-play would be a fantastic inspiration in the hands of electronic musicians.

From both Zymogen and 12rec., several names came up. We were lucky enough to receive enthusiastic responses from both sides as well as from artists of other great labels such as EKO, Rain Music, Autoplate, Standard Klik Music and Nexsound. In the end there were so many great tracks that we decided to assemble two different playlists; one for the digital EP, downloadable for free on Zymogen, and one for the amazing handmade CDr-LP available at the 12rec. webshop, both with exclusive remixes and artwork.

Many artists took part in the project, adding their personal touch to every single Crepusculum track. These include Tupolev bassist and sound-artist Alexandr Vatagin, Darren McClure, Engine7, Emil Klotzsch & Raimund Sudermann, Bluermutt, Letna, Alexandre Navarro, Ibakusha, The Love Songs, Heezen, Koutaro Fukui, GoGooo and the Netaudio legend Marsen Jules who contributed different remixes for both the album and the EP.

What is particularly incredible about “Sky Diary Edits” is how the different interpretations of the same source fit together. Every musician deconstructed Fred’s guitar as if to get closer to the original melancholia of his melodies. This is particularly evident in pieces by Darren McClure, Letna and GoGooo. Certain musicians chose to completely turn the tracks inside out in order to give a new feel such as Heezen and Bluermutt. The album serves as a vital constituent of the whole as it completes the EP with some of the best remixes of the entire project, namely by Emil Klotzsch & Raimund Sudermann, Koutaro Fukui, The Love Songs and GoGooo… absolutely unmissable!

Words by Filippo Aldovini

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Sky Diary Edits @ 12rec.net
Sky Diary Edits @ Zymogen.net (hit this link for direct download)

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I recognized young Herzog a bit later than I could have. Being an important part of the Welsh Serein-collective, he contributed a wonderful piece of electro-acoustic ambient for the second label compilation OIO which, in a whole, was enjoyed a lot at the 12rec. world headquarter. We got the Crepusculum EP in the pipe and planned to add a remix to give Fred Baty’s folklore music a decent electric twist. So we got in contact with Bill Bawden a.k.a. Herzog. His idea of transforming analogue sounds into short-form ambient-compositions fit our intentions perfectly.

After the great success of “Sky Diaries EP” back in December 2006, Bill told us about some new stuff he was preparing for a future release. In addition to the songs on both of the Serein-samplers he had two EPs online and we were happy to have the man for a special 12rec-release. “Ocean! Be our Blanket“ consists of eight relatively short pieces each built around a single musical element or sound-idea. For “In the Background, Secret Armies” Bill distills the cozy melancholia of a delayed piano-motive with warm cracklings and low-key synthesizers. “Woke Up Surrounded by Enemies” has a rather ominous feel. You’ll recognize the beautiful noises (some kind of Herzog-trademark), but there are no real instruments to be heard. Bubbling loops of synth-drones interfere, swell up and fade like a bad dream. The piano is back at “Here Come Our Fathers” afterwards. Bill opens his sound-repertoire a bit and shifts microscopic loops and distorted vocal samples in the wide echo chamber of his piano strokes. Listen to “Adjusting to the Light” to catch Herzog fusing guitar- or harp-sounds with some well-defined rhythmic elements. Crisp! If you want to hear one of my odd comparions- think of Pharrell Williams remixing Gastr Del Sol. Huh?

Warm, quite focused, hypnotic and neat. Herzog delivers a beautiful study on sound and structure that surprises with emotional discernibility and uniqueness. An experimental release for 12rec. after so much popmusic recently, but a record you shouldn’t have missed.

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Ocean! Be our Blanket @ 12rec.net (hit this link for direct download)

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Rob Hunter is a young fellow from the city of Bristol in South West England. He studies illustration (he did the artwork forhis EP) and spends his time putting together tiny animation videos and making music. “I use whatever instruments i can get to make a sound, and layer it all up”, as his myspace-account tells us. He released a cassette at UK Tapeclub Records before he joined the 12rec.-family in late 2006. Say hello to Rob!

With a strong sense for funky grooves and heart-warming melodies, Rob ransacks a genre you used to know as POP. His attempt is DIY, his beats are cut-up, the sound lo-fi. “Spectrum” mixes an old drum machine-beat, dinky noises, Rhodes-chords and French synthesizers (see Phoenix). “Waiting” is body moving sample Funk with acoustic guitars and a lush bass-line. For “Spill”, Rob even raises his voice. Pay attention to the short piano-sketches! Wow. Image a mixture between 12rec.-labelmate Rob Steady and electronic music prodigies Hot Chip from London (UK, indeed). “Song Four” (at position five) is another example for Rob’s talent to fuse tight Hip Hop beats with cheerish melodies. Once again, his simple vocal-lines will make you stuck. The last two tracks are a little less danceable but add a certain mood of melancholia. Especially “First Day Back” is an oh-so-beautiful piece of miniaturized independent Pop with cute synthesizers and re-sampled guitars. Music for the young at heart.

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Rob Hunter EP @ 12rec.net (hit this link for direct download)

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Nic Bommarito comes off like the all-American college boy. He’s from a small city in the near distance to Detroit, Michigan. He studied philosophy in Ann Harbor and changed to Albuquerque, New Mexico to expand his Sanskrit-studies. This trip took him across 2/3 of the US, but the next relocation was even more thoroughgoing . In 2006, Nic moved to Lhasa in Tibet, roof of the world. Nic is the unresting type. Due to his studies, he runs several websites, draws small comic strips, releases philosophical prose and documents his travels via a nice photo-blog. What’s interesting for you: Nic Bommarito is a talented musician, too. He got in contact with us in late 2006, and we spontaneously decided to release his LP “Taciturn” at 12rec.

The “Taciturn” album fuses instrumental Rockmusic with moments of Alt. Country and epic Indiepop, keeping an eye on melody and structure. Imagine a mixture of Canadian GY!BE, the Americana Avant-Garde of Chicago’s Brokeback and the huge melodies of Italian Postrockers Giardini di Mirò. Nic might not be the perfect musician, but he knows how to build up a song. For example, “Taciturn I” lasts nearly ten minutes but you won’t regret any single second. There’s a strong sense of yearning throughout the whole LP that invokes a lot of pictures. “Badly Asbestos-Covered” sounds like desert and sea at the same time, bringing together slide guitar and accordion. The heavy string-arrangement for the final track “I Never Listen” is among the most touching I’ve ever heard.

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Taciturn LP @ 12rec.net (hit this link for direct download)

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The young lad behind the Crepusculum-moniker is Fred Baty from London. Crepusculum is latin for sundown and suits the music of our December-release perfectly: the day is done, you’re creeping home to take a rest, to chat with the ones you love, to do what life REALLY is about. This ambience of being-at-home is a also a fairly good Christmas-motive, so maybe the best time to enjoy Fred’s “Sky Diaries EP” is now…

What does it sound like? If you’re down with the 12rec.-backcatalogue, you’ll probably remember the “Dusty Window EP” by Californian Giraffe. Like him, Fred uses his acoustic guitar for most of his compositions. Folk is an important influence, and the boy Baty surely enjoys the last 40 years’ classical Pop-bands. But in distinction to Giraffe, Fred doesn’t intend to write ’songs’ like them- his instrumental Pop-music avoids vocals, is built from clever structures, unusual harmonic layering and a talent to let songs end. No psychedelic Freak Folk-jams in here! The late Talk Talk might be a good comparison, you can mention Brian Wilson, Sufjan Stevens or German Postfolk-duo Taunus. In all, you will enjoy his music even if it is of no importance to you that Fred’s influences are more like Jazz, contemporary composing or Folklore – beauty is something everyone understands.

Big shout-outs to Bill “Herzog” Bawden from the Serein-collective who contributed the remix!

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Sky Diaries EP @ 12rec.net (hit this link for direct download)

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