Tobias. returns to Ostgut Ton with his third full length Eyes In The Center and expands the musical narrative laid out by his Helium Sessions EP (O-TON, 2016). The Berghain resident keeps exploring the vast modular synth-driven Techno, Experimental and Ambient territories on a journey in-between genres.
Tobias Freund is long established as an influential artist and has – since the early 1990s – been working as a professional producer, sound engineer, label owner and strictly live musician. Besides his early solo projects (such as Pink Elln, Metazone or Phobia) he’s also been collaborating with Dandy Jack (as Sieg Über Die Sonne), Ricardo Villalobos (as Odd Machine), Max Loderbauer (as NSI.), Valentina Berthelon (as Recent Arts) and Atom™ to only name a few. With his vast experience, diverse output and interests, Tobias. doesn’t tire to actively push against existing boundaries and explore new areas of electronic music. More

Tobias. returns to Ostgut Ton with his third full length Eyes In The Center and expands the musical narrative laid out by his Helium Sessions EP (O-TON, 2016). The Berghain resident keeps exploring the vast modular synth-driven Techno, Experimental and Ambient territories on a journey in-between genres.
Tobias Freund is long established as an influential artist and has – since the early 1990s – been working as a professional producer, sound engineer, label owner and strictly live musician. Besides his early solo projects (such as Pink Elln, Metazone or Phobia) he’s also been collaborating with Dandy Jack (as Sieg Über Die Sonne), Ricardo Villalobos (as Odd Machine), Max Loderbauer (as NSI.), Valentina Berthelon (as Recent Arts) and Atom™ to only name a few. With his vast experience, diverse output and interests, Tobias. doesn’t tire to actively push against existing boundaries and explore new areas of electronic music. More

Tobias. explores space and gasiform substances with his Helium Sessions on Ostgut Ton. Following his recent image and sound collaboration with visual artist Valentina Berthelon as Recent Arts, Tobias. now delves into the idea of music reminiscing gas leaking into space with four new tracks. While we all agree that there can’t be sound in a vacuum, Science Fiction taught us the opposite, that space can potentially sound hyperfuturistic, hostile yet exciting. And since the Chandra X-ray Observatory discovered the deepest sound in the universe near a supermassive black hole – why should analogue synth jams with the stars seem impossible? With Helium Sessions Tobias. proposes an acoustic representation of the gaseous state of matter in space. “LAGEOS 1” on A1 already sets the tone with meandering drones atop a gnawing synth pad and distorted flickering percussion. The title refers to the satellite LAGEOS-1 which will continue to orbit planet earth in 5,860 kilometers altitude for another 8.4 million years (or 4,418064E+12 minutes) – we’ll let you do the maths of how often the 6:03-minute “LAGEOS 1” could be played until the satellite’s returnal. “Nucleon” on A2 comes with a more dubby, deep and throbbing feeling, “Helios” on the flip features epic noise textures with shimmering melodic synth leads and a multi-layered break beat vibe, while “Spectrum V” on B2 closes this 12“ with another dub cut, detailed synth explorations and alienated vocal bits. Helium Sessions offers four new zero-g tracks from Tobias. spread out over 27 minutes on this extended EP, his third full-length album will be landing in 2017. More

Following the release of the second Tobias. solo album on Ostgut Ton this February, Mathew Jonson & The Mole, Peter Van Hoesen and Blue Hour deliver three of the album tracks in remix form. On the album "A Series Of Shocks" the multifaceted tracks and their puristic sonority exemplify a contemporary sound that shines through its passion for detail and the decades of experience that Tobias. brings to his music. The Mathew Jonson & The Mole remix spans the whole A side of the 12". The track is constructed over 9 minutes. An arc of suspense is built by the gently rising percussion and the mix of the hi-hats. The trademark Tobias. sound completes this excursion and a completely new track emerges. The original elements of "If" remain perceptible as hints only but this remix is a fine addendum to the album. "Cursor Item Only" acquires a new direction in the remix by Peter Van Hoesen, who previously contributed an astonishing intro track for Marcel Fengler's Berghain 05 mix. His remix of "Cursor Item Only" is a broken techno groove with absorbing bell structures, in combination with intriguing effects they appear to turn on themselves like a screw inside the break only to plunge back to their starting position the very next moment. The last remix comes from the relative new face Blue Hour. Even though it's the final track, his Remix of "He Said" couldn't be further away from shutting down, instead it leads the mood of the remix EP towards the peak time phase. Reduced but to the point. Through combination of classic 909 drums and a remarkable arrangement of the original sounds Blue Hour manages to slay the dancefloor. More

10 versatile tracks taking us ever further into the purist, evolving sonic world of Tobias. More

10 versatile tracks taking us ever further into the purist, evolving sonic world of Tobias. More

"Freeze" is a darkly shining jewel that scoops its hypnotic energy from a rolling synth- sequence. More

Mark is releasing a new EP called Integriert Euch Nicht. It features two tracks taken from his Berghain debut and a freshly-composed drum & bass missile. “Fucking Sick Of Myself Since Day One (Hot Desk Mix)” and “Hats Off To Herr. F” were first performed at Mark’s 2018 Berghain live set during Ostgut Ton Nacht. The former is a breakcore-adjacent call to arms for the self-loathing, the latter an antarctic shiver of predator- mode IDM-illektro. “Integriert Euch Nicht (Commercial Jump Up Mix)” features singing from Blackest Ever Black alum Silvia Kastel. Mark wrote the vocal parts with sine waves before Kastel recorded each tone individually, creating microtonal clusters in the vein of Luigi Nono. The sax-like sounds are Wilted Woman playing the aerophone, an electronic woodwind instrument. Otherwise, it's Mark's most deliberately straight ahead drum & bass track to date, trading the beat science of former releases for a stubbornly boneheaded approach in line with the title's message. Integriert Euch Nicht is something of a spiritual successor to last year’s tech/gentrification/real- estate-investment themed Integrier Dich Du Yuppie and a ruffer, more floor-focussed elaboration of the techniques tested on his unterton debut The Least Likely Event Will Occur In The Long Run. Under his Klon Dump alias, Mark has also previously released a psych-mnml double EP called Klon Dump Vs. The Open Air on A Colourful Storm and Two Rooms, a tape of sound art improv and knackered pop-strumentals on Bristol-based imprint NoCorner. When not playing solo, Mark also accompanies Blackest Ever Black’s Carla dal Forno on live electronics. More

On her Unterton debut, Their Specters, Borusiade offers four different takes on atmospheric, industrial electronics and chopped rhythms, composed around the themes of ecological and human self-destruction. 2018 has already been an active year for the Romanian-born, Berlin-based electronic musician, who released her debut LP A Body on Co´meme in March and has since toured her live set throughout Europe. Known for a hybrid sound between noisy electronics, techno, post-punk, and dark disco, she has also released EPs and 12“s on labels such as Minimal Wave sublabel Cititrax and Jennifer Cardini’s Correspondant. EP opener “Forewarned Is Forearmed” sets the tone as a massive drum march, stomping forward between rolling snares, clanging metal percussion and guttural drones, while evolution-themed ”Common Ancestor” is a tribal head-nodder, with booming sustained kicks offset by overdriven snare brushes and fluttering synths. New forms from a primordial sonic pool. On “Doublethink” wailing synths and stuttering rhythms vie for dominance in a storm of off-kilter techno, while the mammoth, slow melodic closer “Atlas” moves to the pace of waves crashing and hypnotic, detuned, interwoven melodies. Big sounds for the end of days. More

Unterton kicks off 2018 sideways with three tracks of high-octane electronics by Mark. 0-160 BPM in 15 minutes. Previous EPs for A Colourful Storm had a conceptual focus: the destructive effects of tech start-ups on Berlin’s cultural landscape. Sound-wise, they paired frenetic, experimental d‘n’b with musique concrète. On his Unterton debut, Mark continues further down a path of dark and psychedelic beat science. At times tranquil and hypnotic, other times charging forward between cracked whips and whiplash left-turns. “Comedy is the dog that walks out of the room when you call its name." More

After recent records by Kobosil, ? (Summe), Etapp Kyle and Nitam, Unterton continues its path of presenting young faces with a new EP by Somewhen. With his Null EP the Berlin-born and -grown producer expands his musical repertoire, connecting to the tonal range of his live and DJ sets in and out of Berghain. The four tracks on the Null EP all share a certain sabulosity: crackling, distorted and unpolished sounds are the EP’s ongoing motifs – sometimes in form of distinguishable effects for melodic or rhythmic elements, sometimes more subliminally arranged in the background. Yet, inbetween there’s much room for stylistic diversity. A1 opens with the Techno cut “Inward”. While the kick drum pounds throughout, the track’s multi-layered and detailed melodic and percussive elements add the real thrill with rich layers of bleeps and beeps, flicks and clicks. “Grit” on A2 resets the tempo and hints towards Industrial and EBM territory. While the title refers to the aforementioned textural distortions, the cut impresses through its use of hypnotically slow-picked bass guitar strings, shimmering synth melodies from far spaces and its ruptured rhythm progression. “Null Drift” on the flipside picks up the pace and kick again and keeps relentlessly going throughout its 6 minutes, adding swelling then decaying synth pads, while drones and acute percussion cater for relief. “Diskret” on B2 closes this EP with a targeted and straight rhythm, lashing claps, meandering melodies and protruding drum machine slaps that make the track a thrusting companion to the flipside’s “Grit” More

25 years old, born, raised and based in Berlin, but all at home in the club. Nitam’s debut Retold EP (U-TON 06) already set the tone in 2015, and here we are three catalogue numbers and 14 months later with his second 12" release on Unterton taking a similar line as his debut four-tracker did: new varied sonic themes with an overall fresh sound. Although still being young of age, Nitam outlines once again his interest in dance music from the late 80s and early 90s, presenting himself schooled by classic Detroit House as well as Chicago Acid House, but all without limiting himself to a restricted pallet of styles or catering towards musical expectations. A1 starts off gently with “Keen Insight” and its almost romantic, dreamy and hazy vibe – a mellow, melody-driven and emotional listening piece in the vein of Nitam’s initial track “Retold”. The following “Perception” on A2 is a more functional and club-enabled cut, taking shape with an Acid-informed bassline, moaning syth pads plus claps and percussion here and there. The flipside begins with “Influx” featuring a springy, muffled yet muscular kick alongside a rising synth line. What at first feels like a tool track soon evolves into a more complex song format once the sustained string and oscillating melody kick in. The EP is rounded off by the eponymous “Cancellate” and its almost Dubstep-like, placid rhythm progression and drive while being dominated by ceremonial synth pads and wraithlike keyboard speckles. U-TON 09 once again shows the versatility of Nitam as a producer, a talent that is also being reflected by his ever-increasing interest in DJing. More

After his joining with Ostgut Booking in 2015, his contribution to the Ostgut Ton | Zehn compilation and two 12“es on Ben Klock’s Klockworks label, Ukraine-born, now Berlin-based producer and DJ Etapp Kyle debuts on Unterton. As with his previous releases Etapp Kyle captures his playful, multi-layered Techno endeavours with single-word track titles: Continuum EP starts off with “Opto”, an atmospheric track with fazing bleeps, ensouled synths and subdued claps – a prime example of his great feel for musical detail. “Ahora” builds upon this vibe with more asynchronous drum patterns, well placed drips of melody, distant pulses, mesmerizing pads and hints of rattles amongst other percussion. The EPs title track “Continuum” is distinctive through its use of industrial hammer jabs and reduced, puzzling synth pads that are counteracted by a more dominant, steady and stubborn kick drum. “Limb” contrasts unconventional pulsating, hypnotic synth tones with sharp claps and snare sounds, and rounds off this 12“ of all new, puristic and futurist Techno, catering as much to the darker corners as to the brightest spots of the dance floor.
More

With U-TON 07 we're introducing ? (pronounced: 'Summe'). This collective of Berlin- based musicians has been propagating in the city's subculture during the past two years. With this release ? are offering some hypertextural and -percussive music. "These tracks should be regarded as an invitation. We would like to approach change, the new and unknown with an open mind in order to challenge our perception of union and normality. We understand this music as a consolidation of communicative events which intends to interlink and encourage appreciation of complex differences through friction, interference and beat instead of renouncing them by establishing perfect harmony. Beyond what is currently conceivable, we focus on a joint musical and physical experience which also intends to make the impossible feasible. More

Entering the merry world of post-disco,proto-house,mirror ball fantasies,baby powder dreams+rays of sunshine. More

The first Unterton release features remixes by Efdemin and Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer. More