Koehler opened into the hill a spacious wound and digged out ribs of gold. This is his second o?ering for the ESP Institute. Side A, behold a wonder! They but now who seemed in bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room throng numberless—like the conjurers of Light Magic beyond the Tuscan mount; or faery elves whose midnight revels by a forest-side or fountain some belated peasant sees, or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth wheels her pale course: they, on their mirth and dance, intent with jocund music charm our ear; at once with joy and fear our hearts rebound. Such place eternal justice has prepared for those rebellious; as far removed from the rave and light of a sunrise set as from the centre thrice to th' utmost pole. Oh Side B, how unlike the place from whence they danced! There the companions of the artist’s departure, o'erwhelmed with ?oods and whirlwinds of tempestuous ?re, he soon discerns; and, weltering by his side, one next himself in power and next in crime, long after known at the ESP Institute, and named Koehler. If he whom mutual league, united thoughts and counsels, equal hope and hazard in the glorious enterprise joined with me once, now misery hath joined in equal ruin; into what pit thou seest from what height fallen: so much the stronger proved he with his thunder; and till then who knew the force of those dire arms. Farewell, happy ?elds, where joy for ever dwells! Hail, The Grand Illusion, receive thy new possessor—one who brings a mind not to be changed by place or time. These two songs will sit you dove-like brooding on the vast abyss. TRACK LISTING: A. Light Magic,, B. The Grand Illusion
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Koehler was hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute. Side A recalls the hazy memory of an ear-worm chant heard over a decade ago on the streets of Thailand, a melody that since haunted the artist and has finally been exorcised by his own hand in the shape of 'Melencolia V'. Somewhere between an enchanted bashment and a sailor’s watering hole, Koehler found a gargantuan kick drum that lands solely on the 4, slammed it together with a wide pulsing bassline and brutalized Dancehall snare, then laced it all up with his elusive synth melody. Add to this a generous sprinkle of finely-ground cosmic dust and we’re all tripping the light fantastic. On the flip side, the artist buckles up for a rough and rapid-paced journey with 'Invidiosa' — a relentless snare scrapes, gouges and corrodes over 7 minutes, coupling with a simplistic bass loop and swiftly marauding through a demented assembly line, accumulating various nuts and bolts of instrumentation along the way — an undeniable dancefloor exciter for those hours when the club becomes unhinged, dancing becomes raving, and slightly more audacious folk can channel their inner truth. These two songs will have you question your existence. More

Koehler returns to Berceuse Heroique with his third release for the label. Contra Blood invokes the spirit of early No U Turn records, infusing some techno dynamics, creating a very interesting anthem for people who don't care about boundaries in dance music. Flammarion Breach combines his classic 'ardcore techno sound with a repetitive arpeggio that recalls the tension of some of the best film scores by John Carpenter. With Rotating Rupees, Koehler delivers another beautiful ambient tune and this time its his ode to Zelda. More

Comes with an insert. More

out of nowhere white label on Skudge... More

Now in its tenth year, Frankfurt-based record label Die Orakel has earned itself a strong catalogue of classy releases in a distinct sonic and visual attitude, its latest being a compilation called Braindance.

A fair assumption about Braindance as a genre could be, that it's rather in the zone of kaleidoscopic and whimsical quirktronica, less about IDM's futurist tropes. From Die Orakel's point of view, its very own Braindance compilation marks the label's tenth anniversary by releasing an intense listener's atlas, to its own and their creative collaborators' musical slant of mind.

While much could be said about spectral traces of a leftfield past, nostalgia isn't heard anywhere. The more you listen to this selection, the deeper the tracks plug into your brain—stretching from ethereal harmonic licks rippling with fragile glitches, bleepy to bass-heavy electroid steppers of any BPM range, to abstract-scientific neo-modular artistry.

Die Orakel's Braindance transmission can be had as a 15-track digi-release, as well as a 4-track vinyl EP. Pick either for your library of the future. The Braindance compilation will be released on 16 February 2024. More

Die Orakel welcomes Frankfurt based n9oc to its lookup-tables, hotwiring its community based operating system anew with 'Memory Allocator'. Her sonic information design echoes both fast-paced and beatless, early and spaced out melodic british IDM, complementing any 90s informed chord-code library. Compiling six sense altering code snippets onto vinyl, n9oc’s 'Memory Allocator' is future proof with any higher AI or real life form to come. More

O-Wells is back on Die Orakel with his fourth transmission, called "Moldoom". This 4-track séance is mainly made of uplifiting, spaced out electro tracks, some rolling along with subtle or acid basslines, lush pads and gently subdued detroitish chords. Die Orakel leave it at your sonic discretion, whether the catalogue number references the year 1996. More

Belia Winnewisser’s debut EP on Die Orakel, 'Mother Earth Took Poison In Her Soil', has her sonic exploration grounded in one of our most pressing topics to day, comprised of braindancing breakbeats intertwined with radiophonic artefacts, lingering between warm melodic pads.

With a slightly melodramatic tone, 'Mother Earth Took Poison In Her Soil' sets a pressing call to Side A, while 'Interlude 1' is a short radiophonic story to engage with your own imagination. This blends into a warm and melodic 'Dancing Patterns', embedded in soft pads. 'Haze' presents a darker facet of this EP, using eery synth pads and tension inducing fast arpeggi. 'Interlude 2' literally tells a sonic fireside tale, before 'Unattainable Promises' accelerate their breakbeats, intertwining with lush pads on half-step passages and sonic layers of different tempi. More

Die Orakel long time collaborator Edward gracefully reappears with a three track emission called Time Stretch. Edward’s appliance of the titular technique is not restricted to various sonic elements at all, as it extends to the tracks’ mental notes and their trajectories beyond the digital realm.

Time Stretch fills the entire side A with vibrant sonic elements, a warm bassline along an eerie pad, all on top of a straight and punchy bass drum. La Grotta’s signature melody, plus chirps and cowbells, inject a slight touch of exotica to the musical meta-data, while time stretch artefacts refer back to a befittingly themed EP. Finally, the undercurrents of Black Sea evolve along a modulated melodic pad, a pulsating bass and beat structure, and a light 90s IDM morse figure on top of frequency sweeps. More

Die Orakel reveals Lake Lemuria EP by Poly Chain, a full-on electro emission loaded with relics of British 90s IDM. The pun intending Max For Death commences the sonic diffusion with booming bass drums, reverberating acid line, plus an elevating meandering melody. Latter qualities extend and modulate subsequently, in variations joined by slowly shifting atmospheric pads and fast paced electroid geostructures, rendering a polychrome four-track braindance-scape. More

Further on the trail of 90s sonic specters, Die Orakel releases Ike‘s Stone Diviner EP, an affiliate with Index Records. The titular track amalgamates the momentum of sparse yet heavy weight breakbeats with the warmth of lush pads, and literally reverberating 90s trance or IDM elements along granular rave signals. The beauty of its subsequent tracks lies in their well-tempered, fresh exploration of past sonic phenomenons, devoid of today’s retromania. More