Name: The Empire Line - Spraypaint by BASSIANI
Duration: 6 min 1 s
Description: The Empire Line - The Nature Of Your Oppression Is The Aesthetic Of Our Anger EP

The presented EP by Newa was created during pandemic times, in isolation, when artists worldwide had to give up their basic needs and look for new opportunities to express themselves in complete deprivation. A transformation into a physical vacuum was required to regain the balance—lost in the face of an existential dilemma. Each composition is an artistic embodiment of metamorphosis and temperance, a sonic manifestation of a continuous process, an improvisation with an arsenal as limited as people's actions under isolation. “Equilibrium” describes and discusses the universal issues for humankind arising from sociocultural and psychological contexts and does so in the language of music. With its rhythmic cadence and frequency components, this record acquires an almost tangible form that goes beyond all the limits of perception. The accompanying energy of sensations, cognitive processes, and new consciousness inspired by the discoveries transform into a single story of four tracks, where each carries a feeling of undisguised sublimation as the ultimate source of creativity.

The release explores the subject's relationship to the environment and how a modern soul interacts with large-scale cataclysms, of how one might confront the darkness and what will be one's armament in the face of the new (the latter in this case, not being derived from the old); How does the inevitable need for expression arise, amidst a chaotic storm behind unchanging behavior, and how is this storm reharmonized if the recipient body and mind belong to an artist? How is the balance achieved, and when is the equilibrium reached? These rhetorical questions are best thought through by listening to this record, as frequency is the leading instrument and minimalistic phrasing naturally follows the stream of consciousness.

The remix of “Equilibrium” belongs to Peachlyfe, a Danish musician known for their anarchist spirit, blending the rave rush with a drive of queer resistance to intense experiences. In the remix, the structural blueprint is strengthened with a gentle and meticulously measured interpretation; the care with which one artist approaches the story of another is clearly visible. Similar to Newa's personal experience, a middle ground between transformation and balance can also be noticed here.

“Equilibrium,” on the one hand, tells a very intimate, individual story and, on the other, echoes the challenging task this era has set for itself—the need for action and evolution despite the loneliness, emptiness, stillness, and emotional contention of the environment—all of this being a uniting force, bringing the listener into one big community; “Equilibrium” responds to a person's ability persisting into active development through a repetitive and monotonous context. Harmonious syncopes and airy fragmentation within the monumental framework are a metaphor for this, preparing not the destruction of an immovable internal constitution but for simultaneous change.

All tracks written by @newa
Remixed by @peach-lyfe
Mastered at Hardgroove
Mastering by Paul Mac
Artwork by Tengiz Begoidze
Words by Natuka Natsvlishvili, text adaptation by Elene Pasuri;
Distributed by Triple Vision

Newa's "Equilibrium" finds support from the Creative Collective Spectrum in cooperation with PHRD of the FDFA, practicing the resilience and strength of women, queer, and gender non-conforming people's solidarity in times of global crises

Pre-order

B2 Equilibrium (Peachlyfe Remix)

B1 Equilibrium

A2 Electro 404

A1 Dtrance Love

France’s proliferation of techno talent is hard to contest these days, but Mathys Lenne’s here in case you had any doubts. The DJ/producer also goes by The Scan, and makes up half of Classic Blue, pushing forward a steely vision of the genre that’s both shrewd and quick as a whippet. Alongside projects on HAYES, his beats have shown up too as vinyl EP on Blue Hour’s eponymous record label as well as a debut LP on Dutch powerhouse MORD (2023). It’s a hard hitting genus of techno that borrows from the layered and cognitive approach employed by forebears Efdemin and Float Records label boss TWR72. He’s been busy, and found a powerful voice he spends night after night bringing to dancefloors and headphones alike. For Bassiani Podcast 206, the francophone techno envoy weaves a complex mesh of warped kicks that doesn’t let up for a second, a building tension only someone with faculties as sharp as his could successfully maintain. If this is the first time you’ve heard his name you’d be wise to take note, with an ear like his, little can stop him.

@mathys_lenne

Bassiani invites Mathys Lenne / Podcast #206

Experimental Podcast and event series Zenaari continues to break new ground with this next instalment from Nikolaj Jakobsen (Sugar) and Emil Aastrup’s new alias Flutek. This one’s highly conceptual from start to finish: a collection of in situ recordings from the recent past including test setups from aleatory sessions, tracks that got lost in the never-ending process of tinkering and other bristling frequencies from the misc folder. In sending each other patches for the past few years, they’ve also tweaked them, sent them back and forth, and expanded and reinterpreted them into entirely new sounds. Along the way, they’ve learned from each other and their hardware too, investigating the fringes of these experiments and harvesting what they could in return. Zenaari Mix 011 is the result of this ongoing alliance: shimmering atmospherics, a spray of irregular notes and warped drones that resonate and pioneer a strange new language between man and machine. A left to right hemisphere idiom and bold new direction for this budding collaborative project.

Zenaari Mix 011 - Flutek

Next up comes a long-time torchbearer of the Naples techno scene. Gaetano Parisio first came to attention under the pseudonym Gaetek, and released a string of records on labels like Planet Rhythm and Primate Recordings that quickly found their way into the collections of esteemed selectors like Dave Clarke and Jeff Mills. That was the 90s, and as the new millennium broke he donned his own name and funnelled his creative energies into releasing record upon record under several (of his own) manifestations of imprint: CONFORM the first, followed by ART (Advanced Techno Research), SOUTHSOUL and ADAGIO. With his trusty three/four-turntable, two-mixer set-up he kept up a regular touring schedule and authored many memorable nights, pushing a syncretic brand of Techno that took influence from the wealth of peers around him. Ultimately, the pace of output and the demands of DJ life were anything but light, and so it was that 2007 put a pause to his activity. But after a ten year break he moved to Barcelona, set up a new studio and has been cooking up his usual frenzied productions since. Much as before, his gritty, unfettered loops wear the unmistakable guise of his earlier CONFORM releases, and carry a sheer momentum that’s a surefire bet til the end of the night, if not much longer. Bassiani Podcast 207 is a window onto Gaetano’s vision; circling basslines that charge headlong with no hesitation, pure, driving techno, recorded live at Kvanchi’s Curated by Resident night on the Bassiani floor back in January.

@gaetano-parisio

BASSIANI PODCAST SERIES

Bassiani invites Gaetano Parisio / Podcast #207

Repping an oft overlooked Swiss techno contingent comes the next guest in Bassiani’s podcast series. Basel born and raised Garçon is one of the most promising names to call the bucolic town on the shores of the Rhine his home. He got an early start, mixing from the age of 14 and booked a mere two years later, assiduously cobbling together influences in his early work and soon delivering performances city-wide. First those at Hinterhof (now closed) and then those at local staple Elysia. With musical collaborator Agonis he’s also fired up techno label Amenthia Recordings, an agar dish for like-minded Basel music makers. His own sonic experiments are a purely live affair, and that’s no bad thing. Garçon’s escapades, from Waking Life to Barcelona’s Parallel have honed his voice and made of him an adept hand when faced with the strenuous demands of modulating crowd energy. Nodding to a range of influences across the electronic map he harbours a superlative talent for finding niche sounds at the fringes of common scope. Enter Podcast 208: towering, no-bullshit sounds, an hour of ghostly, mechanical whispers and powerful basslines, earth-shaking and infinitesimally precise techno from this connoisseur selector.

@garcon

Bassiani invites Garçon / Podcast #208

Born in Algeria, and raised between France and the Netherlands, with a later stint in London, Mary Lake has lived a life through the lens of different cultures, each adding a little more to her experience in the realm of electronic music. It wasn’t always her medium, but in DJing she’s found her most authentic voice, with her start at more intimate house parties, then on to the best and brightest of Dutch clubs and festivals. For her, creative discovery and expanding the limits of craft is key, covering both the range of utilitarian techno and more atypical sounds, the likes of which she was apt to share via her experimental pandemic-era radio show Worshipping Discordia. Alongside that, and a slew of catchy releases, she’s now a Spielraum resident and frequently billed on stages from Dekmantel to De School to Tresor, Bassiani and beyond. Her percussive techno spreads the kind of wildly infectious crowd energy that drew a younger her towards it many moons ago, now she's on the inside looking out. Bassiani Podcast 209 is an hour of vanguard beats delivered fresh by this burgeoning selector, driving and serpentine basslines to rattle your musical senses.

@marylakeworld

Bassiani invites Mary Lake / Podcast #209

The Empire Line - The Nature Of Your Oppression Is The Aesthetic Of Our Anger EP

The Empire Line - Spraypaint

BASSIANI

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