REVOLUTION MOON (groundbreaking musick)

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METRI

Original Issue: 1994 Sähkö Recordings (SÄHKÖ-006) Buy it here!!!

Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

1. Part 1: Sisään
2. Hornitus
3. Kuvio
4. JL-CSG 1
5. Muuntaja
6. Hion
7. Twin Bleebs
8. Erit-samat
9. Lasi
10. Part 2: JL-CSG 2
11.Radio
12.Asuntola
13. Kenttä
14. Halli
15. Dayak

from Aquarius Records:

Fortunately kept back in circulation with a little more regularity, this is the first (and perhaps best) album from Mika Vainio. As with his work in Pan Sonic, Vainio's techno minimalism holds a crystalline purity due to the use of several hand built random noise generators.
Vainio situates these seemingly delicate high-end pulses within Steve Reich-esque phase shifting and then sets down rigid techno structure similar to early Plastikman or even the Profan sound of Wolfgang Voigt.

Hypnotic techno achieving the drone supreme.

from Boomkat:

If you don’t know, the very first few Sähkö releases stand out as being prime examples of some of the most warped, weird, head scrambling awesome abstract electronic music ever made. Hitting on electro flavoured downtempo, acid techno minimalism and bass heavy speaker breakers.

From 1994 “Metri” was the first album (then CD only, amazingly this is the first time these tracks have been put on vinyl) for Sähkö from Mika Vainio after those (now hellishly rare) hand drilled 12"s with silver foil rapped sleeves (visually a massive influence on Fat Cat's Split series). “Sisään” is just like early Autechre, fusing massive 808 beats with dope beat programming and an isolationist feel deep. “Twin Bleeps” is truly deranged -if Steve Reich ever dropped a pure acid house track then we could only ever dream it would sound this good-. “Kuvio” is sick bleep techno with an outrageous bassline and lowdown cold drone harmonics. “Lasi” drop's sub acid chords in a major classic detroit techno vain. “Hornitus” is another sick minimal cold dark nights techno mix weapon and “Muumtaja” pounds away relentlessly with electro thud's and thunderous hard dub basslines. Finally “Hion” repeats the technique's of “Sisään” and “Radio” win's the major prize as a growling heavy bassdrone piece ala Parmentier (if you follow that link then major respect) kicking off with half heard radio static and then progressively getting heavier and heavier (sparks metaphorically flying from the stylus as it wrestles with the bass vibrations) as this album rolls towards it's conclusion.

They don’t make records like this anymore and thankfully so as we'd need hospital treatment on permanent rotation to keep our heart rate down... In addition to the already essential vinyl edition the CD takes you further into the beatless ambience of “Radio” with “Asuntola”, “Kentta”, “Halli” and “Dayak”. Minimal evolving echoic tone patterns (like a modern Morton Feldman), ghostlike thunderous static/ambience to snap your speaker cones (spookier than when you first watched 'The Evil Dead' or 'Dr.Who' :), what sounds like water droplets in dub and “Dayak” a killer soundtrack piece.

An outright classic.

QUICKSILVER MOON (the pulsing side of musick)

PORTER RICKS
BIOKINETICS

Original Issue: 1996 Chain Reaction (CRD-01)


Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

1 Port Gentil
2 Nautical Dub
3 Biokinetics 1
4 Biokinetics 2
5 Port Of Call
6 Port Of Nuba
7 Nautical Nuba
8 Nautical Zone

Another masterpiece by the likes of Thomas Köner (this time together with Andy Mellwig).

from Discogs:

Porter Ricks’ “Biokinetics” is Berlin dub that got thrown overboard somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle, to emerge as one of the most interesting Chain Reaction releases. It has all the hallmarks of the seminal German label: industrial percussion & beatscapes with heavy fx processing. But is has a shimmer to it that most of the other Chain Reaction releases lack, a glitter like the waves of an ocean or the scales of a fish. The tracks that don’t necessarily shimmer gurgle and ooze like seaweed in a tide pool, or sort of drift along like the flotsam that accumulates in a marina. This CD takes me somewhere that no other music can. No other CD I own manages to simultaneously sound so completely mechanic, and yet so entirely organic.

zthrockm

One album that managed to stand the test of time and become a true classic of the genre. Like Daft Punk's "Homework", its influence in this style is almost ubiquitous, yet often subtlety employed. Swirling underwater textures coupled with harsh techno beats and a degree Basic Channel subtlety is the name of the game here, and listening to their solo ventures, you can easily see who brings what to the mix. Without doubt, "Nautical Dub" is the track that always does it for me; all of the elements come to a major climax here (albeit an early one) and the result is one of the most defining tracks of minimal techno. If only it was a little longer...

mjago85