Repress!

Emotional Response's 10th-anniversary celebration are brought to a superb close with Benedikt Frey. He serves up a magnificently dubbed out and psychedelic cover version of Joy Division's 'She's Love Control across four different versions. The vocal version might be the best for us - it retinas that compelling dark drum funk you expect from the band with eerie synth additions and hefty bass. The instrumental is more slow and dubbed out in a traditional sense with the Lucas Croon dub doused in endless reverb. Last of all is a dub by Frey himself that is full of open space and bass bin distorting headiness. More

Close your eyes and merge into Benedikt Frey’s 'Fastlane'. Imagine sitting in the driver’s seat of a an automobile, one with exceptional horsepower and torque, as you stare out the windshield at the red light, warping in fata-morgana a mile down the road. It’s a straight-away, a black top with two lanes, and against your better judgment you decide to floor the gas. No hesitation in your muscle, your ankle or the ball of your foot, which you now realize is some kind of universal pivot, the first point of contact fusing your body with the will of machine. In this moment you’re in awe that you, a human, an animal, grew from pond scum into something so advanced as to engineer this thing, a mechanical beast capable of overwhelming power and exhilaration. But you also feel a seductive dread, an outside force diverting you from caution toward a dangling carrot of curiosity, asking yourself, ‘How far can I take this thing?’ The dread, now a constant, is numbed, equalized by an adverse intoxicating gratification. You feel both sensations in real time, however, rather than take responsibility for yourself, friends, family and innocent bystanders, you cement your foot to the floor and lean your head back. Noise around you fades to mute. Smell the benzene-scented air, feel the wind on your face, the menacing vibration of the vessel you control beneath you and every grain of asphalt under its tires. This mile has now lasted an eternity and you’ve left your body for some objective view, as if watching climax of a film. Past the point of no return, you embrace abandon and lean into fate. The film becomes slow motion, a crawling pace so mesmerizing you convince yourself of an option to eject yourself from this madness, but as you finally let go of your last morsel of fear, you run the red light head-on into the nucleus of a fantastic glistening sculpture of torn metal, glass, oil, broken dreams and heartache. 'Fastlane' may be just drum machines and synthesizers if you’re timid, but listen harder and know the catastrophic reality of existence, a wreckage so gruesome we dare not rubberneck, but afterall it is our nature to stare. More

After two remixes and a contribution to MT’s Sheva compilation, Malka Tuti is glad to welcome monsieur Benedikt Frey to the family
with his first solo EP on the label.

Recall is a 4-track dance ep, with 4 cuts of different flavour and sound.
From deep wavey dub to playful peaktime ravey sounds, Bene is taking the listener on a real journey, providing djs with an eclectic variety of tracks to pump up the dancefloor on different parts of the night....

His unique quirky and trippy sonic signature and production approach (reminiscing the sweet taste of ganja), stands out throughout the ep and it adds a fresh new direction for MT’s ever growing catalogue. More

When British Airways got privatized and listed on the London Stock Exchange, somewhere in Canada the first Starbucks outside of the US opened, and the Walt Disney Company signed an agreement with the French Prime Minister to construct Disneyland Paris. In the sky above southern Argentina, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, northern Somalia, and the Atlantic Ocean a hybrid solar eclipse materialized for 7.57 seconds, whilst Margaret Thatcher performed for 45-minutes on Soviet television. Some days later, The Simpsons cartoon first appears as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, Diego Maradona wins his first Italian soccer championship with Napoli, and Eighteen-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust lands a private plane on Red Square in Moscow. In the mists of the world's first conference on artificial life at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Mainland China opens in Beijing, and Prozac gets approved for use as an antidepressant in the United States. Much give way for the future, down there in 1987, the year that marks the title of Benedikt Frey’s freshest mini album, out into the world on R.i.O., the label he runs with some pals in the North of Berlin. It’s a dubby melancholic conqueror, wistfully, repetitive, drilling, absorbing, spooking. It makes you dream. Not particular of the year 1987. But it’s all there: The Red Square, the untouched land of the Val d'Europe, Diego on fuego. Six dark-ish tracks in trance, melancholic dub, downbeat heaven, journey music depths, all full of light and yet so dark. Futuristic dramas linked to a speculative past. In our dreams all might look different. The eclipse may last 27- minutes. You meet Neuromancer cyberpunks and blade running Ghost dogs, all taught to hack by Phrack. Cristal clear melodies, sampled voices, and veiled basslines, analogue scopes, and digital ropes, longing for a past that storm into the future. A time where deep listening widens the acoustics into infinity, while neon glows charm the light smog. Benedikt Frey been down there. Or maybe not. His latest music tells stories from the bygone, vested with the forthcoming. Come in and look out. There is nothing to see, yet so much to hear. More

Benedikt Frey makes an anticipated return to the ESP Institute. After leisurely toying with themes around this fourth release with the label, which follows his 2017 debut album 'Artificial', a dense nihilistic fog seems to have enveloped his creative process and undoubtedly informed his frame of mind. The approach here is perhaps more minimal than the artist’s previous endeavors — reducing music to skeletal loops, allowing their character to develop and fluctuate over the course of each piece — a confidence that exemplifies an artist hitting their stride, but in no way does he rely on the trope of “less is more”. Whereas a minimalist embellishes the importance of elements through their isolation and negative space, Benedikt fills every facet with granular measures of sound and sifts them, in a cyclical motion, through his spectral arrangements. The title 'Cells' speaks to the unadulterated path from which Frey cultivates complex gestures utilizing limited means — stretching singular organisms to their furthest limits, breaching their brink of stability and inciting cancerous mutations — proving time and again his mastery of tonal nuance and fearless embrace of distortion. Each of these four songs deliver a despondent poetry, predominantly abstract, but occasionally complimented by verbal commands from dystopian futures, such as the blanketing repetitive chants in 'Interlinked' that conjure images of labor, assembly lines and infrastructural erosion, or the intercom punctuations throughout 'Substance B' that refer to the “world’s future” which, when juxtaposed over such dark melodies and gritty drums, allude to science fiction, Film Noir and a post-apocalyptic existence. As the winter approaches, the melancholy grows very real, and we swoon. More

Benedikt Frey returns to Live At Robert Johnson with three hypnotic cuts. More

Neu Boy on the block Doc. Frankenfurter von Berliner. Mörder edits. Sprache flyer, solar liebe. Träume Dreams. Tu Amur.Panzer Peoples rise again !! More

In 2017, Benedikt Frey released his breathtaking debut album with the ESP Institute, Artificial, and now as we finally come up for air, we’re more than proud to offer an eclectic collection of remixes that’s nothing short of essential. Side A leads with H For Hysteria remixed by a beloved hero, Nicolas Chaix a.k.a. I:Cube, one of the most prolific and respected electronic artists Paris has to offer. His touch is considered and elegant, imbuing the track with a tasteful 303+808 backbone to support an array of patiently floating melodies and angelic vocal samples. Following this, Tolouse Low Trax of Du¨sseldorf’s infamous Salon Des Amateurs remixes the same track, stripping instrumentation down to a skeletal palette of bass guitar and stabbing percussive punctuations, chopped up inna minimalist stylee that has become his beat-making signature. Side B leads with a remix by another Du¨sseldorfer, DJ Normal 4, whose re-imagination of Private Crimes takes us for an even more menacing ride, half-timing the tempo and skillfully rolling out a barrage of jungle snares from rave days of yore. Closing the release is the most aggressive remix of them all, a bonafide techno beatdown of the same track by DALO, the co-producing artist to whose haunting vocals lace the original version. Her dark vision opens with sparse industrial drums that blossom into a driving assault of raw machinery, definitely not for the faint-of-heart. An all-around solid release here, fun for all the family... more than just the tip!
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Dear madam, Dear sir, Ramona is ready to reveal yet another manmade mystery to humanity – "Reframe" by Benedikt Frey. Browsing through Frey's back catalogue, one thing has always been certain with every new record released – Frey's music has always been mystical, was working in different layers and has never been only a further development of the record before. "SH Birds" enters the Single with waves of hypnotizing synth-sounds, a weird vocal-sample and an analog-driven beat. "Signals" has a terribly wonderful build-up, starting with a basic rhythm from a kick-drum some hi-hat and a snare here and there and only lives off carefully chosen soundscapes. "Mind The Gap" goes right the opposite way from the track before – a striking bass- line throughout the track with a hunch of acid, a clap as hard as a smack to the head and mesmerizing vibes all over the place. "Good Night Houston" marks the last track of "Reframe" and starts out with a dark soundscape that drives right into an analogue outburst of old Chicago-ish acid-vibes and loses itself in the haze of deepness later on. Ramona is proud to present you this piece of strange and exotic fruit – let's relish together. Farewell, Ramona More

When something new starts it's because there's a need to wander further, to cut deeper. MRT is a result of this. For their first record the newly formed division of Lux Rec teamed up with Benedikt Frey.
Three perfect tracks to start the journey, build foundations and describe the far off obscure fringes of the MRT universe. The introduction of Portal, a dreary number, together with Telamon, acidic march, and Stereobate, relentless physical techno music, portrays the musical range and qualities of Benedikt, and sets the path for MRT. "We live our life free of compromise, we step into the shadow without complaint or regret.“ So they say, believe them. More

Lopasura, on only its second release is evidently becoming a force to be reckoned with. Benedikt Frey’s distinct rugged aesthetics toy with some conceptual ideas for each contribution; flirting with Greek mythologies, romantic legends and the idea of intricate layered meanings and rhetoric’s for the EP as a whole. Coarse kick drums and clattering percussions are used in conjunction with epic industrial and machine-like synth lines, beautifully engineered and held together by the mixed emotions and moody atmospheres present in all three tracks. The genuine and heart-felt intent with Frey’s work is undeniable, producing a fine and certain quality that will surely resonate with anyone in favour of the live and raw musical attributes he is skillfully displaying with each new release. More

Repress!

Much has been said about Nami Shimada's JPop Bubblegum Deep House anthem. Produced by Soichi Terada in 1989, Larry Levan used to bang it in he Paradise Garage, ressurected by Creme in 2004, over a decade before the hype. What more credentials do you need? Here's all the versions that matter, including a beautiful and haunting Legowelt remix that's rated amongst his best work (by experts that is). More

Limited reissue of the classic Exaltics 2011 release on Creme Eclipse aka The Living Planet. Housed in a full sleeve with fantastic previously unreleased artwork by Godspill. Dont miss this masterclass in brooding and dark electronix tech-fi. It may sound scary at first but lucky for you it all ends in a crop circle rave! More

Part 1 of a retrospective of sorts, compiled from dozens of unreleased tracks from literally two decades of producing, these gems were collecting dust in the vaults of Ekman. Evocative and eerie electro from the Dutch master. We think we can let the music speak for itself in this case, as it's unique and instantly recognizable. More

Part two of our retrospective takes our journey deeper into the woods with his unique brooding electro, vivid sparkling soundscapes and minimum for the maximum dirty brown The Hague Acid (TM). Whatever, I'm just gonna go ahead and say it... gorgeous and essential. More

For the first time ever on vinyl, Iv/An's spectacular debut album Self and Selfish. Toiling away for years in relative obscurity, this Ex-Yu cult vocalist has a slew of highly sought after releases on his own boutique label as well as Austrian Tonn Recordings and more recently Fettkakao. Blending New Romanticism with a stern style of Cold Wave - he sings and produces every song himself - Iv/An has been a staple of the Balkan and Austro-Hungarian live scene for close to a decade now. Recently he started to make waves internationally with a stellar live set for Intergalactic FM, where his sleeper hit "Loopholes" turned more than a few heads. He featured prominently in Henry Rollins' 2022 end of year radio show and is constantly performing and honing his vocal craft. Strictly limited to 400 copies on White Vinyl in exclusive sleeve design, so whatcha waitin for? More

Repress!
New album by the irrepressible Dutchman... The '2080' part of the album title is taken from the Roland JV2080, a legendary digital synthesizer from the nineties that was used a lot in the making of the album. Bought second-hand in Tokyo for a couple of hundred dollars, it lends the record a very dewy eyed soul, whilst the 'Crystal' part of the title stands for the self-made 'DIY germanium crystal compressor' Legowelt used throughout the writing process. The album itself features ten new tracks of pure Legowelt music mainly recorded in De Hague in the past year, but also on the road during tours of LA, the Californian desert, Tokyo (which spawned 'Crystal Cult 2080') and Tejada Gran Canaria (where 'The Future of Myself' was written.) Where his last album The Paranormal Soul was an organic trip into misty forests, this one seems more concerned with medieval spirits; it's deeper, darker and the whole thing is tied together by a more coherent sense of ancient alchemy. Gi ven the use of a DIY germanium crystal compressor during production, it's no wonder everything feels warm, fuzzy and mystic in a way that draws your attention in like that fabled philosopher's stone... glare too long and you might just turn to stone. Right from the opening track the mood is so encapsulating you are drawn right into Danny Wolfers' mysterious electronic world. From there various different tempos are explored and plenty of famed synthesiser work comes to the fore, wrapping grooves in trippy themes, impish spirits and plenty of organic lushness.
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A spectacular debut by this mystery production team by way of London and Berlin. Deep EBM influenced Electro from beyond the rim with a dash of acidic retro futurism. More

Remastered re-issue of this all-time classic alien-funk electro by Aux 88! More

Bristol based Rhythmic Theory, known for working the dark and mysterious edges of bass heavy techno and drum & bass, returns to Creme Organization. After his first work for the label in 2017 he now brings a fulsome nine track mini-LP 'Mechanised Dreaming', exploring the dark corners of ambient and synth based intrigue. Previous releases landed on his self-titled imprint and labels like Idle Hands, BRSTL and Blackest Ever Black offshoot A41. Atmospheric sound design is at the fore here, with cinematic soundscapes crafted from broad synth smears and plenty of subtle little motifs. The music paints pictures of a metropolis during the dead of night, or a former industrial factory reduced to a hall of echoes and shadows. There is subtle tension built from sustained chords and plenty of suggestion of weird lifeforms in the icy ticks and scuttling footsteps of thew a-side. Side b is less dark and dank, with slightly brighter synths and wider horizons all explored. This is a truly immersive and emotive listen that always keeps you absorbed. More

Chicago house and Detroit techno devotee Simoncino is a master of authentic analogue wizardry. The HotMix Records boss joins the dots between the past and the future with his deep and dreamlike tracks and put out an album on Creme Organization back in 2015, and has remained hugely prolific ever the years. Here he explores a full range of sounds, starting with the slow and mysterious deep house of Housetime, which has beautiful synth patterns unfolding throughout. Two mixes of It Up explore ambient with a pained vocal loop and rubbery bass, and a loose and cosmic dub house cut that Larry Heard would love. On the flip, the roomy Tribu has dreamy Italo bird calls and glistening synths paired with punchy rubber kicks that set your mind wandering and Una Notte Con Michelle is expansive deep house with drums that march, tinkling bells and a squelchy bassline that is perfect for the intimate back rooms. Digi bonus Timezones rounds things out with smoky and atmospheric deep house that is filled with deft little details that occupy your mind as much as your feet. More

Dona is back with another EP of emo-jakkin Mediterranean style dark-side. He walks the fine line between hope and hate on this one, mood-swinging his way through various shades of azure and off white. More

Next up on Creme Organizaiton is Lake Haze. The Hague based Portuguese artist is a regular on this label having put out four EPs in the last two years. He's also linked with Unknown to the Unknown and Shall Not Fade so is an esteemed talent with a blistering sound that fuses futuristic techno and electro into storytelling dancefloor dynamite. Space Reservoirs kicks off this EP with slow but heavy drum work, acid twitches and spooky cosmic echoes. The Observer picks up the pace with quick and slick kicks from the streets of Detroit overlaid with ripping electro basslines and deep space atmospherics. Unexplored Oceanic Territory is expansive electro with busted drums and echoing pads that add real scale before more acid finishes things off with real rawness. Prototype is dark and heavy, with another searing baseline and crisp metallic hits, then Into The Unknown is a blissed out electro roller with dreamy pads and twinkling keys melting into the cosmos. It closes out another essential EP from this timeless producer. More

Creme Organization's latest missive comes from Fabio Monesi, an Italian with a gritty house sound that is aimed squarely at the club. He's served up punchy beats on labels like Russian Torrent versions as well as his own Wilson Records before now and has a simple but effective sound. 'Riot' kicks us off with rock slid kicks and lithe synth stabs fleshing out the macho groove. Clever vocal samples bring some steaminess and ensure this one will do plenty of damage on the floor. 'Last Friday' is a raw and lo-fi affair with rattling, sharp edged hits and hissing synths all softened with jazzy chords. House drums and rolling bass prop it up in groovy fashion, then 'Reduction' is a frazzled brew of spiting hits, jerking machine grooves and busted frequencies that is as raw and tough as you like. Last of all, the excellent 'Ozyork' rounds us out with punchy drum programming, intoxicating and off kilter chords and brain frying sonic imperfections that are perfectly imperfect. Add in a deep acid line and you have a surefire house bomb with real meat in its bones. More

Creme Organization welcome a new producer to the ranks for their next EP: that man is Rhythmic Theory, a mysterious artist from Bristol who has years of experience of DJing, producing and running labels behind him. Most recently he has been in charge of his own eponymous label, and has close involvement with the BRSTL imprint as well as releasing on Idle Hands and Happy Skull. Across four track he shows a number of different sides, all of which are fascinating and inventive. Pessimists' opener Empty House (RT's Choppage Mix) is a sparse and broody track with, at first, only the occasional kick drum beneath sooty synth smears. Its from a post-human world and eventually turns into a lurching, off beat track that rises form the ashes of jungle and dubstep with real menace. Outlawed From Reality is another slow and purposeful track that is eerie and cinematic: the off beat drums and spooky atmospheres are full of intrigue and suck you right in, then Cyclic Motion continues to bring a paranoid and unsettled feel to the EP with its layering of elastic drums, naught sine waves and scattered drum hits. Last of all, Rachael's Theme mixes up passages of blissful cosmic ambient with loose, rumbling drums and a general vibe that feels something akin to passing from this life to the next.
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After an EP on Creme Organization off-shoot Jericho One as DJ Plant Texture, Dona Basile now assumes his Dona alias for a new EP on the main label. Entitled The V.G.P Sessions, it features four new cuts from the Italian. Up first is a live cut version of 'Energia', a bristling electro track with globular bass and coarse hits. Turbulent but full of synth based serenity, it is a fine start. 'Cigarettes' is rugged and broken, with glossy IDM synths and corrugated drums all loosely arranged into something prickly and unsettling. 'The Deads At Twelve' then gets even more fucked up, with rusty synths and blown out drums making for a dystopian house groove that will likely soundtrack the apocalypse. Last but not least, 'Nr. 13' mixes up Detroit synths, wild acid, heavenly chords and chopped up, buried deep vocal samples into something that will fire every synapse in your body. This is outlier stuff from Dona that sounds like little else. More

Next up Creme Organization is a return by regular artist Lake Haze. Following his Natural Insight EP earlier in the year comes Intergalactic Communicationz, four more fresh tracks of acid, techno and electro that is brilliantly evocative. The Portuguese artist known as Goncalo Salgado also please son labels like Unknown to the Unknown and is a real hardware master. At The Gates ov Futron is a turbulent lack track with zipping acid and a cacophony of percussion that is visceral as well as cinematic. Drexciyan Aquarium is, as the name suggest, an aqueous electro track that slithers and slides through an expansive underwater world. Poseidon's Dream then offers a more rugged electro groove that is backed by heavenly pads and a real sense of loss in the synths. Last of all, Intergalactic Communication closes out this far travelling and intergalactic EP with a sci-fi deep house track that is filled with light, 909s and a sense that the end of the world is coming.
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The next chapter in the Creme Organization Ecplise series comes from Cosmic Garden with three original tracks and one remix from Orgue Electronique. Little is known about Cosmic Garden other than he is from Southern Italy and has had two EPs out in 2016, one on HotMix and one on Cosmic Rhythm. He heads out the blocks here with 'Reptilian Treant', six minutes of lo-fi deep house that is roomy and atmospheric. Lazy synths bring soul and a gentle chatter of claps and hits helps drive it along. 'Rare Centaur' is also way below the surface but is darker and more celestial, with turbulent bass, frantic claps and angelic chords glowing like a white light at the end of a tunnel. Dutch house and electro don Orgue Electronique then remixes 'Reptilian Treant' into something that is slick and serene, with metallic lines dancing above rubbery drums as big piano chords boucle up top. It is joyous and colourful and truly majestic before final track 'Apocalyptic Moose' takes us back down into a mournful house vibe that echoes Chicago with its roughhewn analogue textures and lovestruck chords. More

The last few years have seen Belgian artist Innershades turn out plenty of rugged house on labels like Creme Organization and Pinkman, and now returns to the former with a four track EP on Dutch label Creme. The prolific producer shows he still has plenty of tricks up his sleeve across all four cuts and stitches in acid, jack and Chicago styles with his own sense of charm. The Kings comes hard and fast out of the blocks with big hits, wild synths and raved-up vibes that will have you punching the air. Knowledge is another banger with powerful kicks and globular bassline run through with more ravey sirens, but this time is a little more haunted. Crossing Paths is all about a simple but effective bassline that bounces along and takes you with it in ways similar to an Omar S joint, then Wait is the most stripped back and mysterious of the lot with cosmic melodies panning about in a spacious and airy deep house groove. Utterly timeless from start to finish, this is another massively effective offering from Innershades. More