Repress

180g 12" Vinyl /Full Neon Sleeve + Download Code.
Dave Sumner returns with a new Function record, entitled Awakening From The Illusory Self. Released as a 12" EP on Tresor Records, it follows on from Existenz, his last full-length album released in November 2019.
Packed in a beautiful sleeve printed with 3 x special Neon colors, Tresor.320 kicks off with the fast techno of Misinterpretations Of Reality', it features a minimal acid-infected crescendo and throbbing pulse. As ever with Function, this idiosyncratic rhythmic work finds a place out on a limb from contemporaries, shapeshifting impulses that infer and guide this raw drum sound.
The second track 'An Optical Illusion Of Consciousness', Function moves towards a different direction, bringing more elements to the mix. It recalls the Dutch 90s techno sound with its melodic blurred synth leanings stretching and morphing across saturated, playful drums and hefty low-end movement. Its bind is perfectly weighted, a phenomenal track that nurtures its inner dancefloor soul as melodies fade away and tighter patterns take precedence.
'Spiritually Unconscious' points to all the trademarks of Function's celebrated sound. A smooth 909 groove underpins bubbling atmospheres and hallucinatory effects, and a nod to the Motor City vision with its fleeting synth strings.
At the core is potent, repetitive simplicity, its beat playing with weight and dynamics but never at risk of being lost. Closing track 'Compulsive Thinking - Repetitive and Pointless' kicks a juddering swagger, finding public addressed system emissions drenched in reverb resonating above bleak analogic synth drones. It haunts and creeps towards a thunderous apex, finding its depth in sparse drum movements.
An enduring fixture in the techno and electronic music landscape, Sumner continues to step through new terrains, reinforcing his spike and vision. Awakening From The Illusory Self finds him as ever delivering the goods in elating moments of pure club heft.
Tresor.320 releases April 16th on 12" and digital.
TRACKLIST:
A1. Misinterpretations Of Reality 6.19
A2. An Optical Illusion Of Consciousness 6.35
B1. Spiritually Unconscious (Dissolve) 9.21
B2. Compulsive Thinking: Repetitive and Pointless 6.46
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4LP with gatefold sleeve , 6 page insert, an engraved side and download card. 2CD in a pocket pack with a 12 page booklet.
The American cable-television industry exploded in the 1980s, pushing broadcasts of diverse programming and emissions of low-laying cultures into homes. Community stations piggybacked on the digital developments of the time, extending their existence through telephony and broadcast a iliates. For those growing up in this time, in locations such as New York City, the localized communications beamed into their homes exposed them to an impressionable array of disparate sounds and visions.
Move into the 1990s and New York was filled to the brim of emergent cultures drawing from this ebullition of communication. From Rammellzee's shapeshifting to the late Judy Russell and Frank and Karen Mendez's Nu Groove imprint fusing reggae, poetry and house, nascent ideas emanated from the city walls, from within stores such as Sonic Groove store and on VHS releases such as Stakker's The Evil Acid Baron Show, a legendary technicolor psychedelic trip along the wildest frontiers of acid house. As scenes expanded and identities developed, such individuals weather the events of the visceral now, expressing themselves right into an unpredictable future.
Function's long career has seen him uncover a vast range of sonic identities, a mainstay through house, techno and industrial with collaborations with the likes of Regis, Damon Wild alongside his highly influential Infrastructure imprint. With influences deeply tied to pop art, rave and gay scenes, and early memories of block-parties emitting Kraftwerk and Strafe, he found himself seeking out the undercover illegal nights of the 90s on a quest of sexual unearthing, mixing the ever-yearning escapology mission of disco with the influential DJ sets of Jeff Mills.
For his new album Existenz, he marks a clear step away from the corporeal techno of his recent releases. Pivoting around themes of religion, sexuality, trauma and healing, it is a work expansive and celebratory, a clear liberation from a deeply internalized past. Formed from a collection of recordings made in a period from late 2016 to mid 2019, Existenz takes the form of a creative outburst in reaction to a number of traumas - recent, childhood and throughout Function's life. Life partner Stefanie Parnow assisted the production process in its entirety, providing inspiration, spiritual healing and featuring vocal contributions.
Cosmic synths soar and swoop in 'Pleasure Discipline' through towering stacks of rhythm that stutter and creak to a halt before rebooting, a firm robotic response to human intervention. 'Zahlensender' reflects a spatial tetris of urban life, as digitalization set within an XYZ matrix confronts the sprawling city. Constant arpeggiated meditations echo synaptic transmissions, e ecting a dissolution of boundaries. 'The Approach' recalls the unification of the self, a state of delirium non-subjective and smooth, as all connections and functions give way to simple intensities of feeling, crossing the threshold into spirituality. 'Golden Dawn', featuring Stefanie Parnow, marks a further elevation of dubbed-out euphoria, as once more positive rays emerge. His ode to the effortless short-trip urban navigation 'Kurzstrecke' finds Function in motion, upfront and bold, snapshots of conversation and flickers of light. 'Ertrinken' finds metallic bass jabs swamping snipped synthetic voices, with hidden stores of emotion set as a nod to the history of vocoders as a tool for encrypted military communication. House icon Robert Owens features on 'Growth Cycle' and 'Be', entrenching a celebratory atmosphere over Function's clubwise leanings. Closing track 'Downtown 161' reflects the unmistakeable filtered and squashed interjections of television, and sampled dance vocals - a sound for the curious, dreamers and dancers.
With Existenz, Function reveals an essential body of work, spread over 4LP/2CD - thought experiments on the role of identity and spirituality after a lifetime of upheaval and trauma. Leading up until the release date, Function will undertake an album promo tour with select dates - A/V shows at Berlin Atonal and Rural festival in Japan, and three dates as part of his Bassiani residency.
TRACKLIST: 1. Sagittarius A (Right Ascension) 2. Pleasure Discipline 3. Ertrinken 4. Growth Cycle (feat. Robert Owens) 5. Zahlensender 6. The Approach 7. Nylon Mood 8. Alphabet City 9. Don't Ask, Don't Tell 10. No Entiendes 11. Kurzstrecke 12. Golden Dawn (feat. Stefanie Parnow) 13. Interdimensional Interferenc 14. Distant Paradise 15. Be (feat. Robert Owens) 16. Vampir 17. Downtown 161
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Tresor Records is delighted to welcome Rod Modell to its catalogue, with the release of his new album Captagon.
Rod Modell needs no introduction, his various projects render him a master of techno. In repetition and barely noticeable change, Modell resculptures perceptions. His sound-design echoes cinematic ethereality, where ferric artefacts slam against percussion, rusty delays filter observation - the resulting web is a complex, radiating ambience that etches a natural ebb and flow.
Transformative sounds alight from the outset, "Triangulation" recalls flickering harmonies and grains, a tectonic swipe. Fast-paced dub techno emerges in "Reiki", the disorienting clangs suggesting a step away from his recent ambient excursions. "Ito" crunches the pulse further with insistent noise, into soaring epiphanies of darkened transmissions.
Modell singularly uproots standard sonic hierarchies of techno production, crisp static as forceful as his beats, a provocation of rhythm and noise. Unceasing in its fast tempo, "Jade" is trademark Tresor business - the seismic sub-sonics underpin a momentous drive, with reverberated vocal inflections disfiguring warped, dancing materials. "Scrawler" is upfront and direct, a slamming groove and swaying chords di using ethereality. Enter vast chambers of smeared minimalism.
Where Modell's recent releases had indicated a priority for ambient sounds, this new album extends Modell's essential vision within techno. Closing track "Air-Port" shows Modell at his most crucial best - an ethereal colossus of sub-bass weight and morphing geometry.

TRACKLIST: A1. Triangulation 02:58 A2. Reiki 05:18 B1. ITO 05:55 B2. Riga 05:38 B3. Jade 06:12 C1. Tracer 06:19 C2. Scrawler 05:32 D1. Qurra 05:44 D2. Air-Port 07:41
CD BONUS TRACKS 10 - Jade (DAL Remix) 06.43 11 - Sukra 04.37 12 - Kuu 05:06


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Back in the early 90's Dave Coker, Justin Bailey and Laurant Webb set up a music production studio a stones throw away from the famous Cutty Sark in Greenwich, along with Dave " Deptford " Pine as one the founders of the aforementioned studio. They called themselves Strangeweather, worked on different dance music styles and formed the fabulously awesome, but slightly ill fated band Wubble U. Around the same time Justin struck up a friendship with Nathan Coles, a then madly enthusiastic young DJ who was starting to make a name for himself on the thriving underground house scene. Nathan introduced Justin to Terry Francis and the rest of the crew and collectively the formed Housey Doings. They released two records on the Bush subsidiary imprint Green Grass and as if by magic tech house was officially born.
Fast forward a couple of years and the boys replaced the 's' with a 'z' and struck out on their own. This is a re-release of the first record on the label they named after the now legendary club night Wiggle. Two sides of proper, UK style tech house - a sound that's been copied, plagiarized and endlessly imitated. But never bettered. More