For their second installment, the Chateau Chepere crew brings on board legendary producer Stephan Laubner under his STL moniker, with four time warping pieces of music. With his distinctive and intricate sonic palette, Laubner extracts from his hardware different musical colors and shapes to produce singular atmospheres. Opening up the EP is Fly Fly, an epic 11 min minimal house trip full of tension and excitement, followed by Eargrind, an eerie, laid back Detroit leaning ballad. On the flip is Light Up, a spaced out, playful and bittersweet number that will revitalize any hazy after-hours dancefloor. Closing up the EP is Unlike Dislike, a quirky, jacking and mischievous techno workout for the packed club. This diverse ep will pull the listeners and dancers into Laubner's multifaceted, low key but captivating universe. More

Ignition, Something Records lifts off 'Lost in Musik' by STL aka Stephan Laubner. An album to blow your minds, shake your bodies and touch your souls. On 17 tracks and an extended playing-time, this double vinyl comes in complete album feel, multifarious variations, and in STL's full tonal trademark fit. It will rumble dance-floors the same as moody home listening places. Here we go. STL attends the brains & ears in his magic discrete way with an unstoppable bucket-raining flow of fresh sounds, catching rhythms and aspirating music, like no one else usually does. Soon after joining these vinyl reliefs, you will be under the spellbound and enhexed beauty of these otherworldly beats and tones, which makes you feel all of the sudden, being relocated in other dimensions shrouded in new-born principles of fascinating un-shattered realities. Feel from beyond. Something Vinyl Series 31 works great with special and exceptional. From the sound creations up to the artwork. Everything follows the distinct d-i-y philosophy to what a something-records release is well known for. The Vinyls are coming in limited quantity. So you better be fast catching a copy. Now let the music do the further talking. Enjoy this seldom gem. Take the action and get lost in musik!


More

Repress!
STL's dream-state modulations, arhythmic takes and that machine groove signature strikes #mutantexture imaged blundar third release.
More

Echocord welcomes the return of STL this May with the ‘Take Off Music’ EP, comprised of three murky, dubbed out cuts from the acclaimed German producer. Stephan Laubner, better known as STL has long been one of the most respected producers in the underground electronic music scene. Racking up releases on the likes of Smallville, Perlon, Echospace [Detroit], his own Something and of course Echocord where he returns here. ‘Fluxxy’ leads on the package, embracing STL’s signature style via, dusty analogue drums, choppy dub stabs, penetrating low end flutters and airy atmospherics before ‘Dub Plus’ lays focus on a stripped-back, perfectly balanced drum groove, hazy field recordings and bubbling chord delays and bell chime synths. ‘Magic Thing’ then rounds out the release, fusing fm synth melodies and gritty bass stab sequences with thunderous subs and Laubner’s robust rhythmic style. Once again STL delivers a touch of class with a contemporary Dub Techno style for Echocord. More

The inimitable STL makes a welcome return to Echocord this May with a new three-track EP in the shape of ‘Take Your Seats’. Stephan Laubner, better known to most as simply as STL is highly regarded for his unique twist on dubbed out house and techno sounds and has been responsible for some underground anthems such as the lauded ‘Silent State’ on Smallville Records and other material on the likes of Perlon, Echospace [Detroit] and ofcourse his own Something imprint. Here though we see him returning to Echocord following 2015’s ‘Message Of Sound’ Part 1 & 2 EP’s with yet more mind- altering murky cuts. ‘Lost Harbour’ leads on the package with textural field recordings, crunchy distorted rhythms and an amalgamation of snaking bass, synth and piano lines, intertwining and unfolding throughout. ‘Mr Sinister’ switches the vibes over to menacing bass swells, fluttering subs, gritty percussion and an underlying tension before ‘Sensimilla’ edges into more ethereal territory with spiralling dub chords, shuffled hats and winding atmospherics. More

Special remarks : Full inside/out printed Cover Sleeve, Limited to 500 Copies

Tracklist 12":
a1: STL – Atlas, a2: STL – Bug, b1: STL – Night Of Pazuzu, b2: STL - Behind You, b3: STL- Loop

Short info:
A freshly constructed Something analog disk has landed on planet earth in good faith and with the target to shift emotions, bones and your interiors. Join the overall thrilling tune of this 12" with open ears and it will flow neat-sticky through your ready made receivers directly into intuitive grounds with the purpose to move, amaze and captivate. The sounds on Stephan Laubner's new Something Vinyl are raining down straight out of deep blue skies. It's unusual approach is coming nice yet mind-boggling and will vibrate your inner corners as soon as you've spotted the musical language within these STL translated rills. Experimental circuits entangled with friendly sick delightful noises are navigating the record grooves of this lovely vinyl from first touchdown, up to the loop driven never-ending eternal endings. It's like a cat-eyed walk with your exclusive night vision goggles in well known districts, deep down to the center or your senses. STL's patched up noise has been machined and operated solely with modular gear plot-wise, and also includes those infamous STL drum momentums and dirty dim trademark touch, that you can find nearly everywhere with his sound sculptures. Something Vinyl Series 30 is ready now to broadcast from your turntables, in order to send out joy & sincere emotions. It will silently knock on your secret shelter with the best & positive intentions.
More

Solar Phenomena welcomes singular rhythm master STL for a new EP that offers four fantastic tracks of dubby house. It is the label's fourth release and finds the Something label boss in a typically inventive mood. First track 'Spy vs Spy' opens things with shuffling drum loops and eerie synth details that hypnotises over seven minutes. 'Atomsmasha' has wooden hits and rough shakers peppering a soft, imperfect groove as awkward chords bring an unhinged edge to the mix. On the flip, 'Summer Breeze & Brotherhood' has loose keys doing an off kilter dance over STL's trademark low-key drums where 'Freebird' zones you out with long held chords and detuned keys as cloudy, dusty kicks bring a barely-there groove deep down low. You know what to get from STL by now, but at the same time you can never get enough. More

The selector this time for Synthetic Gold Records is the acclaimed producer STL, who has put together a personal selection of some of his own favourite works, some special memories, and as is characteristic with his own label's releases - Something Records - this record has a mix of material, starting with the atmospherics of 'Just Imagine', before going straight into the legendary dancefloor groover 'The Taphead'. The Aside is then concluded by the mellow classic 'October Sunrise'. The Bside starts with an old and little known gem 'Syntax Error'. This is followed by two beatless offerings, the beautiful dub vibes of 'Disconnected' before the peaceful synths of 'Testkrach'. Finally we are treated to three locked grooves, which have been an ever present part of STL's releases over the years, and here we have three most magical. A very welcome selection, and for those new to STL, a great introduction.
More

Coming from a diverse background of equal amounts hip hop and rock, the producer behind the alias of nrl:ndr got into dance music late in his musical career. After playing in kraut-oriented bands like So Many Mammals, parts of that group reformed into the live techno outfit Tren Ne´, with the goal of fusing techno elements with live drums. Playing for illegal raves with a punk-like energy, nrl:ndr has cemented his relationship with his machines in service of the dance floor.

But his solo debut on blundar is quite far removed from that scene. To understand this music, one should be aware of the conditions under which it was manufactured. Reluctant to consider himself an artist in the traditional sense, nrl:ndr makes his music free of anticipation and without apparent goals. To glean into this outre´ musical space is like putting one's ear to the boarded up windows of the photograph that adorn the front sleeve.

The album makes extensive use of the Roland JV-2080, a sample-based synth rack from 1996 with a distinctly clean sound. Our producer dives deep into the expansion cards (labeled after genres like “Hip Hop” and “World”) for curious and sometimes cheesy samples. But he also forces the JV-2080 to do things which are not its forte, like the arduous task of programming decent kick drums.

Another technique that is testament to his experimental view on music making, is the idea of using sketches of unfinished tracks with different time signatures, and mash them together into something new - of which the results of one of these experiments can be heard on the closing track and its bilingual conversation between ambient and tribal.

Full of stunted rhythms and eerie melodies, the unclassifiable nature of the music of nrl:ndr lies somewhere in the vicinity of IDM, classical avant garde and private press synth. From the epic opening track - echoing the post-kraut drumming style of Michael Shrieve - to juggling with chopped up vocal samples and treading into almost trap-like territories on A4, he crosses into a multitude of genres without getting his hands too dirty with nostalgia. More

The duo of Kolorit are probably best known through their respective solo careers - Jens Kuhn under the guise of Lowtec and Gunnar Wendel as that of Kassem Mosse. That the two would have a duo together should come as no surprise, as Wendel has had numerous releases on Kuhn’s label Workshop through the years.

The Kolorit project took shape sometime in 2017 following a night in Bristol where they were both booked for live shows and - on a whim - decided to combine them on stage and see what happened. This laid back and playful attitude would later manifest into the Workshop-released debut album the following year. Crafting unclassifiable mutations of house and techno through live improvisations, the two could join the dots between experimental urges and a dancefloor potential into a vision of crisp drum machines and wobbly melodies.

Lowtec being no stranger to the blundar label (his untitled album of 2015 would be the label’s first,followed by a 12” and a cassette in 2020) it would seem fitting that the duo would continue their journey here with a 2-track 12” further exploring their work. Both tracks here are proper club tools, making this a more compact and focused release than its predecessor. Yet the improvised flavors are present: on the A-side propelled by a jazzy keyboard jam that explores the room like a dancer loosening up their joints. The B-side, while maintaining a crisp motorik beat, bubbles with flourishes of synthesized flutes - somehow both euphoric and unhinged in direction - pierced by the steadfast punctuation of a Brazilian cuica.

It is evident that Kolorit are playing with the color palette of deep house, yet taking things just a notch further with a dry European sense of humor. Exuding humidity and pulsing with heat, these jams utilize the inherent qualities of the right machines without the need for an abundance of filters - making for a stripped down yet fully fleshed out aural experience. More

Across these 7 untitled tracks (as is the modus of all blundar releases) the producer known as Unfinished Portraits crafts a coherent album experience that is equal parts empty space and density. Working in a seemingly collage-like fashion, the opening track juxtaposes rhythmic elements that just barely fit together; declaring upon entrance that all expectations from here on out are futile. Tension builds through a sparse palette of sounds both tactile and atmospheric. Dry, isolated clicks of digital clean trickling through a humming industrial space. Segments are abstract on their own, but stitched together still form an elegant whole. Just when you think you’re getting lost into avant experimentation, something cuts in to surprising effect. It feels “live” in a way only improvised music can.

And there is a conceptual sense of humor in letting the seams of the process lay bare. A string section builds only to be cut short upon completion. A field recording is audibly (i.e. intentionally) looped. The listener is made aware of the illusion and manipulations that ‘music’ creates in the same way Martin Margiela handled ‘fashion’ - with a postmodern kind of wit.

Hailing from Cairo but residing in Argentina, Unfinished Portraits could easily exude upon a dual exoticism in nationalities and climates. This is however not on the agenda, as for where this artist truly resides, is in the hypertextual realm of late capitalism. Identity loss, internet culture, the aesthetic of sadness and the Warp Records catalogue all come into play.

No matter what city, the urban landscape is always concrete and glass. And as the sleeve photo suggests - a picture of a former park turned to rubble in the process of housing developments - all cities are essentially unfinished. More

From Raster-Media; Frank Bretschneider as Komet on Side I, & Olaf Bender as Byetone on Side II - revised versions of tracks from Benjamin Brunn 2019 BLUNDAR7 LP. More

A sacred grove is a place in a forest thought to hold spiritual powers. Throughout history, these sites have been places of worship and ritual. Since the rave boom of 89’ - a new generation has found an alliance with nature steeped in hedonistic abandonment. So it is a befitting alias for the Malmö-based producer Teodor to use in order to serve us these spiritual excursions into ‘open air’ territory. While he has previously donned this mantle to provide atmospheric lo-fi techno on the Japanese label City-2 St. Giga (then as a duo with his friend DJ Natto) - here he hits closer to the deep house palette of his 2017 album ‘Neo Geo’ under the alias Fyodor The DJ.

For the 8th instalment on blundar, the artist has worked closely with the label in picking out the right tracks from his vast archives. While the tempo sometimes staggers well towards BPM levels of hardcore techno, the touch remains gentle and soft. This genre-defying characteristic owes a lot to video game music, and especially Japanese games, where Teo finds a lot of his inspiration.

The first track bathes us in tropical field recordings before tripping off into a relentless tribal groove - countered by meandering new age flutes. A2 is a fluid and complex piece, vibrating with a warm tenderness all the while maintaining a minimal progressive path. A3 deals in crunchy breakbeats and layers upon layers.

On the second side, B1 builds through a hazy fog of tape hiss, pierced by the bouncing thud of sped-up bongos and an arpeggio that escalate it all into transcendental euphoria. B2 goes ‘off the grid’ for a heady trek of slippery beats that spill out into small flecks of breaks, all the while gleaming through the doorway to a sombre ambient jazz score. Closing off this 12” is a chilling high-speed chase through a neon-flashing night, propelled by a numbingly hard hitting drum machine sequence.

The artwork for BLUNDAR8 is as always photographed by mutantexture. The photos - which were taken during a hot summer by the Western Harbour of Malmö - were picked out by Teo as this is a place of great significance for him. A place for the daydreams of sun-dazed ravers More

Repress!
After Lowtec, Alex Cortex, STL and iridescence; Swedish label ‘blundar' presents Benjamin Brunn 11th solo album, 20 years after his debut.
BLUNDAR7 comes as a 10 tracks / 38 minutes long-player, coloured cover on a 180g black vinyl. Artwork by ‘mutantexture’

Brunn wrote and produced all tracks between 2017 and 2018; In contrast to most releases that were limited to one or two synthesisers, this time a whole array of instruments was used: tELHARMONIC, Music Thing Modular Chord Organ, Doepfer A-111-3V Precision VCO, 4ms STS, Yamaha DX7, Clavia Nord Modular G1 & G2. The long-player comes after a collaborative album with Dave Wheels out on Sushitech early this year, and will be followed by one together with Move D, via Smallville in 2020. More

Repress!
German techno champ Alex Cortex hasn't released an album since 2011's Kihon on Pomelo, but the prolific and long-serving artist is rarely resting on his laurels. Having released just one other EP from Lowtec, Blundar now presents a new untitled LP from Cortex that should satisfy fans of his leftfield approach to techno in all its forms. "Track 2" is a masterclass in how to work breakbeats into techno without sounding forced or false, while "Track 4" blooms from delicate ambience to snagging broken beat with the grace you can only find with such a seasoned vet. Spanning many moods, tempos and rhythms, this is a perfect demonstration of the many engrossing approaches Cortex can attempt and succeed at within the many-sided realm of techno. More

Repress!
STL's dream-state modulations, arhythmic takes and that machine groove signature strikes #mutantexture imaged blundar third release.
More

Recorded at Wania#1 and Neues Deutschland studios. DJ Sotofett ( Wania, Sex Tag Mania) on Side I, and SVN ( Sued, Acido) on Side II, revised BLUNDAR2 and BLUNDAR5 respectively. 12” 180g 45 RPM, 500 copies.

TRACKS
UNTITLED (DJ Sotofett's Subcortex Mix)

UNTITLED (DJ Sotofett & E-GZR's Subcortex Mix)

UNTITLED ( SVN’s Total Tape Mix) Clip 1

UNTITLED ( SVN’s Total Tape Mix) Clip 2
More

Workshop's Lowtec with a stunner for blundar! 12” 180g 33? RPM 300 hand numbered copies. More

Repress!
After 19 years in the game, techno veteran Jens "Lowtec" Kuhn is still going strong. While he's recently been in a nostalgic mood - as reissues of early material prove - Kuhn is still capable of producing fresh, high quality material. There's much to enjoy about this first EP for new Malmo label Blundar, from the loud tape hiss, spooky melodies and weirdo ambient dub intent of "Track 2", to the moody, early Autechre throb of Skam-ish closer "Track 4". Dancefloor-minded thrills come in the shape of hypnotic opener "Track 1" - all unsettling, one-note chords, restless rhythms and distant electronics - and the hard-to-pigeonhole madness of the schizophrenic "Track 3".

More