Many moons and stars have passed since VisionQuest co-founder Ryan Crosson last took to the controls on his own label for a full solo trip... ‘I Hope You Will’, his first EP on the label since 2015’s ‘On The Rise’ We’d say he was making up for lost time. Except the time was never lost in the first place. Ryan’s renowned for his creatively prolific output as a DJ and producer. Continually touring and working under a variety of aliases and collaborations, and releasing on the likes of Leftroom, Nervmusic and Number 19, Ryan refuses to sit still.... Just like his music. Forever in momentum and progression. This EP sums up where he’s at and where we can potentially be. Molten grooves with open dynamic agendas where anything can happen. Each track a transition from one place to another as Crosson introduces different elements, tones and grooves. ‘ITYC’ writhes with that sexy Detroit lucidity that makes eight minutes feel like 20 seconds thanks to its strong physical hypnosis, ‘Janet’ plays the ultimate switch up as we’re suddenly jacked from heads down tunnelling foggy, grainy techno to deep breathing, rolling house music at the flick of a snare while ‘Favogo’ provides the final bubbling adieu. Primed with drums so smooth and liquified they’re almost silky, iced with lingering melodic elements so atmospheric they feel like vapours, it’s the perfect way to bring another stark, singular and personal EP to a conclusion. Rest assured he’ll be back again. Who knows how many moons will pass meanwhile... More

For its next release, No.19 Music welcomes one of dance music’s most celebrated contemporary artists in Ryan Crosson for a new single coming on vinyl and digital. Crosson is a true techno tastemaker who hails from Detroit. He’s released on long established labels like Minus, as well as going on to form Visionquest with Seth Troxler, Shaun Reeves and Lee Curtis, and the label of the same name where he also put out key EPs and LPs with Merveille. From headline sets at festivals round the world via club gigs at the most tasteful venues in the scene, he is a real giant of underground dance music with studio skills to match, as this standout three tracker proves. Superb opener ‘Comet Pills’ is a deep and thoughtful track that encourages your mind to wander off into the cosmos. Slick drums and melancholic chords set the tone, while the bass fleshes things out and sci-fi details bring out a cinematic quality. The brilliantly mysterious ‘Roscoe’ is expertly stripped back and reduced house music that takes you on a trip. It's quick and smooth, with watery sound design, soft hits and muffled vocals adding intrigue to a track that is both cerebral yet designed to make you move. Last of all, ‘Snake Oil’ is another fully realised offering which journeys to the edges of the galaxy, with long lingering ambient pads suspending you in mid-air as squelchy synths and shuffling drums keep one foot on the dance floor. These are three terrific cuts of seriously atmospheric house and techno. More

The Visionquest label is proud to present its next musical statement, this time from founding member Ryan Crosson. Coming hot on the heels of a still essential EP from Shaun Reeves and Tucillo, this one is a solo effort from Ryan that features three trademark cuts of supple and sublime techno and house. Detroit born, London based Ryan is currently on tour with Visionquest, playing dates all over Europe and America, and is all set for another busy summer in Ibiza, where he will be one of the experts at this year’s Emerging Ibiza. Opening up in moody techno style with ‘Cadets in Heat’, Crosson lays down a frictionless groove and embellishes it with all sorts of the hi tek soul flourishes that have characterised the sound of his native Detroit over the years, from lithe electronic synth lines to crashing percussive patterns. Both elements add real tension and the way the pads smear out in the background really heightens the sense of emotional weight and resonance to this most standout track. ‘On the Rise’ is then a more propulsive and direct cut. It’s deep, with rubbery kick drums and elastic synth lines, and is the sort of uplifting, intergalactic house affair that will take any DJ set to the next level. Lastly, ‘D!!!” is a frantic, high tempo, big hitting track with corrugated drums, vocal yelps and thick, gurgling bass that is part sleazy, part bumpy and part jacking. It’s a monster, for sure! This EP proves Crosson has continued to evolve since his last outing and really can master a wide range of dance styles. More

Ryan Crosson, one third of the powerhouse Visionquest, gets set to release his next solo assault - the brilliant 'Bricolage EP'. A master at delivering diverse productions, here Crosson offers three heavy dancefloor weapons each with their own distinct allure. 'Spoons' gets to work with pacey percussions, a groovy bassline and underlying eerie synths with reverbed vocal snippets giving it that extra depth. 'Close To Danger' is powerful and destined for the peak time with progressive synth lines and driving bass. On 'Club Chimes' Ryan teams up once again with Cesar Merveille to serve up intricate layers over mystical bell chimes creating a dark and mysterious vibe over a propulsive yet skipping beat. Ryan Crosson has released tracks on groundbreaking labels such as like m-nus, Telegraph, Trapez, Wagon Repair, Soma, Spectral Sound and Supplemental Facts. Ryan also released the impressive, esoteric album 'DRM' and preceding EPs co-produced with Cesar Merveille. Not only a talented DJ and producer, Ryan has performed b2b live shows with Lee Curtiss as part of the Visionquest Thirteen tour at fabric and Movement in Detroit. Cadenza favourite Cesar Merveille is also now a staple part of the Visionquest crew and it's safe to say we will see more collaboration's with Ryan in the future. More

Ryan Crosson is an American Ex-Pat calling Berlin home these days. Originally from techno-city Detroit, Ryan's first releases were featured on the storied Trapez and Minus labels, catapulting him across the Atlantic and directly onto the European club circuit.  Now firmly established in Berlin, his studio running, and with new inspiration fueling the fire, he's letting go of his newest original creations.  With a recent release on Wagon Repair, and this long awaited appearance on Alphahouse, it's apparent that Ryan has found his niche in his new surroundings.  "Under the Willow" and "I Love My Lonely" showcase Ryan's new musical direction, with sharp synths providing the theme, and rolling percussion to keep the dancefloors packed tight.  Deep techno sounds to warm you up on cold, late winter nights. 
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Deadbeat and Sa Pa are pleased to present their first collaborative album on the anniversary of BLKRTZ's 50th release, and defer to Albert Camus to describe the "Whys" and "Whats" of it:

" I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." More

Appleblim. Deadbeat. Shackleton. For anyone with a penchant for dub wise low end sonics and bleeding edge beat science over the last 2 decades seeing any one of these names on their own on a record would make it something well worth having a listen to. Having all 3 together on the same record however very easily launches it into the realm of "buy on sight". Comprised of 4 side long tracks previously only available via the BLKRTZ Bandcamp page, Dub Conference vol 1 sees these 3 masters of bass weight meditations exploring some of the most low slung and psychedelic corners of their respective catalogues. Vinyl only and strictly limited edition, this is a meeting of the minds not to me missed. More

Canadian Berlin based producers Scott Monteith aka Deadbeat and Colin de la Plante aka the Mole are please to announce the release of their debut collaborative album, simply titled Deadbeat meets the Mole. While the two have performed and toured extensively together over the years particularly via their shared association with the Mutek festival and the Cynosure and Wagon Repair labels, this is the first time they've worked in the studio as a duo. Composed over the lock down period in Berlin, the album's ten tracks traverse the full range of their shared bonkers musical interests, taking in low slung house, dub, hip hop, and smoked out sound collages. When asked about the albums motivations they had this to say: “I guess Capital H Hosers is a badge we could both wear pretty honestly. Perpetual tweakers of knobs and pushers of buttons both literal and personal might be another. Stay at home dads. Tellers of untold incredibly bad jokes. Yet miraculously, some 20 years on, still somehow on the same weird page, and counting our lucky stars for all you kind folks who still care to listen. We finally got around to making an album during this little unscheduled vacation from normal life, and we hope you'll have as much fun listening to it as we did making the stuff.” More

Expertly made dub techno for the dance floor. More

The album began with the simple idea of asking friends from across the globe for messages of hope. No musical input was provided before hand, and each participant was free to interpret the request as they saw fit. Though some of the names involved will be familiar to electronic music listeners (Gudrun Gut, Thomas Fehlmann, Mike Shannon), the common thread linking all of them is their friendship with Monteith and the many hours he has spent enjoying their company over the years. As so often happens when good conversation is shared among good friends, the results are as surprising as they are inspiring, spanning original prose, dialectic word games, and timeless quotations in six languages. Each song on the album was then composed around the content received, and named after the people who did the speaking. Ranging from the overtly political to the tenderly inspirational and many points in between, Wax Poetic For This Our Great Resolve provides verbal expressions of hope as diverse and rich as the experiences of the people who so generously delivered them.
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Units and Measurements is the collaborative project of Christopher Hreno, Mathew Jonson and Colin de la Plante. The project sees these long times friends and veteran producers exploring the limits of hardware based improvisation and deep synthesis and effects programing . Documenting a single epic 24 hour session at Jonson's mothership studio in Berlin, this first release sees the trio exploring some of the headiest ambient and tunneling hypnotic techno to be found in any of their admittedly vast individual back catalogs. This release is without question a portrait of 3 masters of their craft at work, and quite unlike anything else you are likely to hear this year. More

Scott Monteith's 10th Deadbeat album, Walls & Dimensions,is now available through his own BLKRTZ label. Comprising 8 tracks and featuring vocal contributions from a diverse range of Berlin based artists, as well as for the first time Deadbeat himself, this 10th outing sees Monteith elegantly showcasing his wide ranging musical interests with a striking new sense of gravity and cutting lyricism not seen in his previous works. More

Deadbeat presents the second vinyl only release leading up to his forth coming album, Walls and Dimensions. While the first installment featured a lucious extended ambient drone piece over 2 sides, part 2 features extended dubs of 2 of the albums dance floor cuts filled to the brim with the space age dub effects, mournful melodies and rumbling bass lines Deadbeat fans have come to expect. Another exciting indication of things to come with the soon to be released 10th Deadbeat album. More

First in a 3 part series of vinyl only releases leading up to the 10th Deadbeat album in late 2015 – First ambient Deadbeat material running time of 40 minutes – Comes on clear vinyl with clear PVC sleeve More

Deadbeat. Tikiman. Infinity. Dub. A quadrangle of such obvious statement and perfect musical inference may very well never have been uttered for those of the wholly weeded out persuasion. Indeed, when the great book of Dub music is written the names Scott Monteith and Paul St Hilaire will undoubtedly figure highly in its chapters devoted to recent years. Monteith, the last great prodigal son of the doctrine handed down from the Blue Mount of Lord Scratch and King Tubby, St Hilaire the undisputed voice of a generation, those fanatical warrior monks, followers of the most Holy House of Ernestus and Von Oswald incarnate. Having developed a fast friendship from their very first meeting in Montreal at the premier Micro Mutek event a decade ago, Deadbeat and Tikiman's occasional collaborative performances have since blown the minds of audiences from Berlin to Tokyo and many points in between. No great surprise then that their first album length venture is a Tour de Force of Dub music of the highest order. Nearly a year in the making, the genetic code of Deadbeat's Infinity Dubs series gets shot through with a Dreader than Dread Kingstonian logic, hi hats dropping back from the three to the one, Tikiman at his most militant, poetic, fierce, and flowing. These are the recordings of two lions uncaged, and none who bare witness shall escape their fiery judgement. If music is truly eternal, here be two voices which shall echo in infinity with all the weight, reverence, and dire power unleashed with every tectonic bass hit, and every whimsical turn of phrase. And if these eight burnt offerings are any indication of what happens when these two sit down for a session of smoke and reasoning, here's hoping they choose to do it frequently. Dub without end. Ad Infinitum. More

Deadbeat. Tikiman. Infinity. Dub. A quadrangle of such obvious statement and perfect musical inference may very well never have been uttered for those of the wholly weeded out persuasion. Indeed, when the great book of Dub music is written the names Scott Monteith and Paul St Hilaire will undoubtedly figure highly in its chapters devoted to recent years. Monteith, the last great prodigal son of the doctrine handed down from the Blue Mount of Lord Scratch and King Tubby, St Hilaire the undisputed voice of a generation, those fanatical warrior monks, followers of the most Holy House of Ernestus and Von Oswald incarnate. Having developed a fast friendship from their very first meeting in Montreal at the premier Micro Mutek event a decade ago, Deadbeat and Tikiman's occasional collaborative performances have since blown the minds of audiences from Berlin to Tokyo and many points in between. No great surprise then that their first album length venture is a Tour de Force of Dub music of the highest order. Nearly a year in the making, the genetic code of Deadbeat's Infinity Dubs series gets shot through with a Dreader than Dread Kingstonian logic, hi hats dropping back from the three to the one, Tikiman at his most militant, poetic, fierce, and flowing. These are the recordings of two lions uncaged, and none who bare witness shall escape their fiery judgement. If music is truly eternal, here be two voices which shall echo in infinity with all the weight, reverence, and dire power unleashed with every tectonic bass hit, and every whimsical turn of phrase. And if these eight burnt offerings are any indication of what happens when these two sit down for a session of smoke and reasoning, here's hoping they choose to do it frequently. Dub without end. Ad Infinitum. More

Deadbeat's dub credentials are by this point are as solid as they come, and being asked to remix 2 of the genre's heaviest hitters, not once, but twice is just about the greatest complement anyone in said position could ever hope to receive. Originally released on CD as part of the deluxe package for the mind blowing collaborative Orb and Scratch albums via Cooking Vinyl, we here at BLKRTZ are over the moon excited to commit these 2 dub monsters to wax for the first time. Without a doubt, this limited vinyl only 12 inch release is an essential purchase for any and all archivist of all things dub wise. More

The latest installment in Deadbeat's Infinity Dubs series sees him submerging his rhythms deep into the echo chamber, offering up 2 solid state dubs with basslines so low only the largest systems will even register their presence. Enlightenment through stoic repetition is the order of the day here, and Deadbeat once again proves his unrivaled skills as a master hypnotist on both cuts. Don't sleep More

Limited edition (500 copies worldwide) 6xLP Box set with remastered versions of Deadbeats LP's "Wild Life Documentaries", "Something Borrowed, Something Blue" and "New World Observer" More

Deadbeat continues his Infinity Dubs series with 2 more peak time burners of dubby dancefloor goodness. ID3 features the unmistakable vocals of frequent collaborator Paul St Hilaire aka Tikiman arriving mid way through the side and invoking a perfect summer time message of peace and love for all. ID4 on the flip meanwhile takes things into vintage hardcore territory with a razor sharp lead voice of classic analog stabs and a tougher than tough rhythm of thrashing two step snares and power techno kick drums. Whether prime time at the club or beach side these 2 newest salvos from the BLKRTZ don are sure to kick any summer dance floor worth it's salt into a frenzy. More

Originally released on Montreal's long defunct Intr_version label in 2001, Primordia was Scott Monteith's first foray into the album format, and some 13 years on serves as a remarkable document of the driving aesthetic touchstones which even at this early stage were bubbling to the surface and have gone on to define the sound of his Deadbeat project in the many years since. Over the course of 7 colossal slabs of crackling digital atmospheres and rumbling drone, a dirge of muted kick drums serve as the only steady anchor in a sea of wildly unhinged and naive sound experimentation, with the whole lovely mess plummeting into a endless cloud of decaying echos, granular processing, and cracked software reverb plugins. With it's production coinciding with the first years of his tenure at the Montreal based music software company Applied Acoustics systems, Primordia is the sound of the young dub Padawan reveling in the endless possibilities of modular software synthesis, and relishing each and every new discovery and mistake along the way. Re-released on CD and for the first on lavish double vinyl with remastering by long time friend and cohort Stefan Betke aka Pole More

Originally released on Montreal's long defunct Intr_version label in 2001, Primordia was Scott Monteith's first foray into the album format, and some 13 years on serves as a remarkable document of the driving aesthetic touchstones which even at this early stage were bubbling to the surface and have gone on to define the sound of his Deadbeat project in the many years since. Over the course of 7 colossal slabs of crackling digital atmospheres and rumbling drone, a dirge of muted kick drums serve as the only steady anchor in a sea of wildly unhinged and naive sound experimentation, with the whole lovely mess plummeting into a endless cloud of decaying echos, granular processing, and cracked software reverb plugins. With it's production coinciding with the first years of his tenure at the Montreal based music software company Applied Acoustics systems, Primordia is the sound of the young dub Padawan reveling in the endless possibilities of modular software synthesis, and relishing each and every new discovery and mistake along the way.Re-released on CD and for the first on lavish double vinyl with remastering by long time friend and cohort Stefan Betke aka Pole More

A new series of techno excursions ending in lock grooves entitled the Infinity Dubs. More