Net Decks 2

It’s not entirely new anymore, but it sure still sounds fresh to our ears: The new sampler by the German Stadtgruen label. Titled “Sprite”, this release collects eight tracks, all around the seven minute mark and with a focus on intelligent and hypnotic arrangements. Firm label favourite Martin Donath (aka Kuomi, aka Punkteins) comes up with a flangeing old-school dream full of subtle hihats, metallic echoes and gentle undulations, while Swiss shooting stars Monzur take their mumbling electro bass both to aggressive and trance-like states. The focus for “Sprite” is summer and you can hear it. Even though all pieces are driven by steady, danceable beats, they remain openly interpretable – it’s up to you as a listener to decide whether you want to dance to this or just close your eyes and drift off. Georg Neufeld’s “Lakeside People” even feeds from an introductory field recording and warm house moods, while Martin Müller of Two_EM fame massages the mind with ambient vocalising. Highly recommended to everyone unafraid of combining resolute rhythms with soothing textures.
www.stadtgruenlabel.net/

Switching to kahvi, a label featruing a collective of artists mainly from Finland, Russia, Bulgaria and Germany (but, as it seems, residing in the UK) and on to some very different material. On their MySpace site, kahvi list Boards of Canada as their first friend and that should provide you with a rough idea where things are heading on their latest “Butano Beats” compilation: Quirky electronica, stuttering grooves, alien soundscapes and naive melodic snippets make for a demanding, deep, foreign yet familiar listening experience. Less about building new worlds than about exploring them, acts like crankshaft or eedl wander through cavernous spaces filled with acid blurbs, distorted rumblings and flickering harmomonic candle light, while duo neurokin can rightly be called the inventors of dark ambient dub step. Tracks build from elemements such as themes and chord progressions, which is why the more complex nature of some of them only becomes apparent on a second listen.
www.kahvi.org

After this dose of heavy sonic artillery, it is about time to recover and relax with “Free Fill Specter” by Winnipeg heroe vitaminsforyou, the musical alias for Bryce Kushnier. Over the years, Kushnier has developed a unique blend of sweet tunes, soft but decided beats, structures in motion and romantic poetry, which have already attracted offers from the world of theater and cinema. Pieces use the huge associative spaces of cut-up samples, clicks n cuts crackling and gentle hissing to great advantage, yet they are never content with remaining on the pure sound-level: Vitaminsforyou is just as much about the perfect pop song as about mood building. “Churchill” is propelled by a dry drum beat and the drawn-in pizzicatos of opener “Being away fame” are suddenly rocketed into the stratosphere by a joyous breakbeat. Emm Gryner sings on “It’s always raining in Dublin” (she obviously hasn’t been to Münster yet!), a lullaybe, swan song and hymn at the same time. Save your “I’ve seen the future of pop” slogans for this man!
www.observatoryonline.org

By Tobias Fischer