Title: Theia E.P.
Artists: Stormfied & Mitoma
Remix Artists: Anodyne, Somatic Responses, Ingen, Defunkt Dialekt
Label: Combat Recordings
CAT no: COMBAT042
Release date: 28 March 2022
Format: Digital Download + Custom USB card
Country: UK

London-based Combat Recordings boss Stormfield teams up with Scotland-based IDM wizard Mitoma to deliver Theia: 4 tracks of heavyweight, creaky machine-step that could sit comfortably in DJ sets of dancefloor electro, IDM or experienced as pure sound-design headphone introversion. It nods heavily at some of their strongest influences from Autechre, Gescom and Gridlock. Reinforcing the release are 5 sterling remixes of electro, techno acid, industrial breaks and leftfield madness from the respected producers Anodyne, Somatic Responses, Ingen, and Defunkt Dialekt.
Created over the long lockdown, the duo’s minds were cast toward the grand, cold majesty of outer space far beyond the walled confines of their bunkers. Taking data and imagery from the European Space Agency as their guides and inspiration, a sonic narrative was developed over 4 tracks, each evolving out of hardware jams on the Soma Laboratory Pulsar-23 drum machine, going through heavy processing and refinement.
“Theia” follows the duo's "Expanse EP" of 2019, continuing the explorative space theme. The EP’s namesake is an ancient planet in the early solar system that, according to certain hypotheses, gave rise to Earth and the moon. In current times, Theia also refers to nanosatellites in space systems engineering.
What we have are 4 tracks of bass-heavy, broken machine rhythms suspended in cold, majestic tones. The EP begins with epic, mournful strings, while rapidfire snares build up in pace. Contrast is a constant trait of their production, where grand, glacially paced strings resonate at odds with rapidfire glitches and metallic percussive details, especially on tracks like “Theia”. “Atlas” goes deeper into Gescom-like territory, confidently chugging with the solid thud of a hip-hop beat as skittering percussion work their way into the cracks between each huge kickdrum.”Kepler” goes along a more dubby route, with asymmetric percussive delays, while “Pulsar” features bleepy machine melodies like satellites chattering to each other in little voices.
 
The 4 originals come reinforced with 4 remixes (or 5 on the bandcamp version). Anodyne reworks the zero-gravity satellite dance of the original Pulsar into a fierce and fast-paced electro piece, tight snappy drums and bearing the characteristic stringwork that he is so well known for.

Ingen takes Pulsar into techno territory, beginning with cantering half-time drums before dropping into a solid, tribal-ish stampede pattern as various elements of FM synth and percussion weave their way in.

Veteran industrial electronic duo Somatic Responses turn in not one but two remixes (the second is available only via the CombatRecordings Bandcamp). Theia (SR breakage remix) takes no prisoners as Somatics let rip with brutal drum breaks fixing in the reds and sharp, cold Aphex-like shrapnel percussion
Atlas (SR acid remix) goes along the acid route, starting mellow and building up into a frenzied swarm of chunky 303 squelches.

Defunkt Dialekt turns in a unique rework of Kepler, with it’s drum arrangements played like a live drummer would, skittering and striking in loose, almost jazz-like style but keeping the heads-down direction
Thick sullen pads permeate the intricate beatwork.

Tracklist:

1. Theia
2. Atlas
3. Kepler
4. Pulsar
5. Pulsar (Anodyne remix)
6. Pulsar (ingen remix)
7. Kepler (Defunkt Dialekt remix)
8. Theia (Somatic Responses breakage remix)
9. Atlas (Somatic Responses acid remix)- bandcamp exclusive track *

COMBAT042: Stormfield + Mitoma: Theia EP

artist: Ingen & Boris Noiz
remixer: Fausten
COMBAT034
Release date: 12 May 
Format: digital

1. Symbols
2. Rituals
3. Root and Stem
4. Spikes
5. Root and Stem (Fausten remix)

After a short hiatus, Combat is back and kicks off 2014 with a fierce new EP that introduces a new artist to the label, with a powerful collaboration from Ingen and Boris Noiz.

Scotland-based Ingen has been on th techno radar for quite a while now, building up an impressive discography that runs from complex poly-rhythms and soundscapes, crossing over to the darker side of techno, released via labels such as Them London, Darkfloor Sound, Noodles, Nerve recordings, Digital Distortions, Wired Room and Tribal Waves, including remixes for Si Begg, Temper D and Dirty Servant.

Rising Serbian producer Boris Noiz has been a stalwart of the Combat label for some years, and has an impressive string of releases via Yellow Machines, Lost in the Sound, Rottun, Bankai Audio, Syndetic, Subtrakt and Dub'n'Breaks. He's also half of the notorious Ontal duo, whose extreme dark/noise infused industrial techno has seen much support from Surgeon, AnD, Stormfield and Darkfloor. Boris is one who "confounds the notion that artists should stick to one idea or concept, having a seemingly clear vision on what he thinks the future should sound like. Connecting the dots between the past and present and paying deserved respect to the people who got us where we are today." - Darkfloor

Arriving at the Combat sound from the opposite ends of techno and old skool hardcore, this fierce EP combines the strengths of the two disciplines, fusing the former's state-of-the-art mechanical rhythms with the latter's hardcore whiplash breakbeats, gluing it all together with precise noise distortion and searing acid lines.

The result is deadly: From the jacking, stumbling techno of "Rituals", the interplay between precision noise blasts and thunderous bassdrums on "Symbols", to the arching 3/4 time acid lines of "Root and Stem" and the Sci-fi cannon gunfire drumwork of "Spikes" - The whole EP runs deep, dark and immersive with mechanoid rhythms. Insistent, primal and yet precise - a dystopian and ritualistic sound that resonates within blacked-out warehouses and fortified bass bunkers set in the future, as society disintegrates and civilisation falls apart outside it's walls.

As if that wasn't enough, darkside champions Fausten bring a bleak yet frenetic sci-fi slant to their remix of Root and Stem, mangling the original and rebuilding it with extra acid lines, mutant howling and apocalyptic atmospheres, tied together with intricate sound design. Soundtrack for flying over exploding cities.

One for fans of Rag & Bone Records, Surgeon, AnD, Ontal and Dadub.

COMBAT034 - INGEN & BORIS NOIZ - RITUALS EP - preview

Anodyne - Witch Fight - Preview

Dead Fader - Dancefloor Nemesis - Preview

Errorbeauty - Perkz - Preview

King Cannibal - Doomsday Dancehall - Preview

Nonima - Monolith - Preview

Ontal - Discipline - Preview

ScanOne - UFB - Preview

Stormfield - Collapsing System (Nonima Remix) - Preview

Subjex - Pulsar Telecom - Preview

The Wee DJs - Little Atomic Bomb - Preview

[stormfield]

artist // title // label

1. James Ruskin - Nan Nife - Blueprint
2. Hos Moz - Zasvo - Bedroom Research
3. Roel Funcken - Daunt - Funcken Industry
4. KiNK - Caustic Soda - Sharivari Records
5. Milanese - Billy Hologram - Warp
6. Corvus - Danaan - Rodz-Konez
7. Sea of Scald - untitled
8. Swarm Intelligence - Antenna - Ad Noiseam
9. Shelley Parker - Beachy Head - Structure
10. Stormfield - Dissensus - Combat Recordings
11. Anstam - Aeto - Anstam
12. Sea of Scald - untitled
13. Diasiva - Unit731 - ?
14. Sea of Scald - untitled
15. Create Her - Sereine - Her
16. Sea of Scald - untitled
17. Milanese - Return to iacon city - Combat Recordings
18. Boris Noiz - Slashback - Yellow Machines
19. Hosmoz - Psaranih - Bedroom Research
20. Dopplereffekt - Deltawave - Leisure System
21. Diamond Version - Future of Memory - Mute
22. Akkord - Destruction (Special Request VIP)- Houndstooth
23. Defunkt Dialekt - Trying to quit this shit - unreleased
24. Stormfield - Rebuild - Combat Recordings
25. Monolog - Monks and Demons - Ad Noiseam
26. Villain - Distorted Reality - Ears to the Future (forthcoming)

[Nonima live]
1. Nonima - Negative Space (forthcoming)
2. MonsterX - Flesh Room: Nonima Rmx (forthcoming)
3. Mitoma - Antecrypt Runes ft. Dissolved
4. Stormfield - Dissensus - Nonima Rmx (Acre Recordings forthcoming)

[stormfield]
1. Linton Kwesi Johnson - 5 Nights of Bleeding (Fausten version)
2. Sea of Scald - Slowly falling forward (forthcoming on Sectioned compilation)

[Fausten]
- Fausten live set

[outro]
- Megagulag - Vacation in Megagulag - MEGAGULAG

Combat Recordings - Stormfield - Nonima - Fausten - Rinse FM 24.01.2015 - Podcast

Mastered by www.BinaryFeedback.com

Charged from awareness of current politics, socio-economic climates and connecting world events, Riot Season began as a way to vent and give focus and expression to lucid, conscious anger.

Gathered works from respected Combat-affiliated producers including Cursor Miner, Milanese, Scorn, Nonima, Fausten, Monster X, Stormfield as well as new allies Defunkt Dialekt, Dekode, Somatic Responses, FZV and Cedric von Flugel, the result is a compilation of hard, heavy acid and jungle influenced tracks that go straight for the jugular.

The tracks seethe and write with intense acid lines, snarling bass, dissonant stringwork melded with harsh, shrapnel-like drumwork, yet disciplined and precise in the way of all Combat Recordings output.

Designed mainly as an arsenal of sonic weapons for DJs, each one of these 15 peaktime destroyers stands strongly and proudly as an instrument of destruction on it's own. Bring it on.

COMBAT037 - Riot Season compilation

15 - Stormfield - Calais Jungle Acid

08 - Milanese - Mr Ion (live Wobble)

07 - FZV - Chhfx(z)

06 - Fausten Vs Dekode - Phosphor

05 - Defunkt Dialekt - Violent Flowers Of Ignorance

04 - Cursor Miner - The Undecidable

03 - Cursor Miner - Null Hypothesis

01 - Cedric Von Flugel - Dynamic Shift

A sneak preview of forthcoming release on Combat Recordings.

Veteran electronic producer Anodyne kicks off 2012 with this fierce remix pack. 

Building upon the powerful Empires EP, the Empires remixes feature superbly engineered re-interpretions by the likes of Dead Fader, AQF (Anstam), Roel Funcken, Lackluster and Fausten.

This preview contains parts of tracks in the following order:

1.Empire of Light - Roel Funcken mix
2.Empire of Light - Dead Fader mix
3.Empire of Light - Anstam’s Quaint Freud mix
4.Empire of Dust - Lackluster mix
5.Empire of Glass - Fausten's Circle of Manias

[Empire of Light - Roel Funcken mix]
The Netherlands-based producers Funckarma brothers have consistently released their unique take on electronic music for over a decade, applying their advanced sound design to create dense, detailed storm of unpredictable rhythms, fleeting melodies and scorching acid lines. Roel Funcken has been prolific in his solo output over the past few years, with a brilliant album on Berlin’s Ad Noiseam label fusing the trademark intricacy of Funckarma more dancefloor focused rhythms of electro, 2 step and dubstep. Here he applies the same bass-heavy focus to Empire of Light, balancing the brooding dread bass with beautiful, wintery light keys and a rushing acid line.

[Empire of Light - Dead Fader mix]
Former Brighton noise terrorist now based in Berlin, Dead Fader has cause all sorts of sonic mayhem since their first album Corrupt my Examiner (3 by 3 music) and more recently the Luckeey EP on Tigerbeat 6. It might surprise fans that Dead Fader also has a melodic side, and very good it is too. Some of that is visible here with a long, lush intro and lush improvised melodies that almost cushion you before the trademark Dead Fader beats crunch in with speaker-destroying force.

[Empire of Light - Anstam’s Quaint Freud mix]
Lars Stöwe, mastermind behind the Germany’s brilliant Anstam, steps up to remix the Empire of Light under his alias AQF (Anstam’s Quaint Freud). Adopting the tense, melancholic euphoria of Anstam’s recent album, he reworks the rest in a totally different direction, with big rolling drums and psychedelic Moog atmospherics. This has torn up various dancefloors from the Mutek Fest in Canada to the Alphaville Fest in London and Elevate in Austria.

[Empire of Dust - Lackluster mix]
Having remixed Anodyne’s brilliant Corrosion album, the Finnish veteran producer return with a powerful rework for Empire of Dust, furious, fierce crisp beats riding atop a big rolling sub, brooding atmospherics and awesome synth work, with huge searing strings that make you feel like you’re standing still in time, with gaze locked into the distant future/past.

[Empire of Glass - Fausten's Circle of Manias]
Fausten - shadowy new artist on Combat turns in their first release for the label, completely transforming the original’s strings into a wave of majestic, dark euphoria that ride over a blistering attack of obtuse, analog kickdrums and searing precision noise in disjointed mechanoid rhythm. Like the more contemplative sibling to AFX’s Isoprophlex, or perhaps Autechre and Alva Noto having fun making a hardcore rave track.

Anodyne - Empires Remixes part 1

Metafield Live Jam Segment A - 11.03.17

Stormfield - Machine Acid (live recording)

COMBAT038 - Monster X - Radikalize - RDK7

Artist:  Fret (Mick Harris)
Title: Salford Priors Versions
Label: Opal Tapes + Combat Recordings
Format: 12” + Digital
Release date: May 2019
Photography: Alexander Binder
Mastering: Binary Feedback
Press contact:
opaltapes.com
combatrecordings.com

1. Mick Harris version
2. Monster X version
3. Stormfield version
4. Fausten version
5. Scald remix* feat cello by Joe Zeitlin, violin by Liam Noonan

Combat Recordings teams up with Opal Tapes to release Mick Harris, with this 5 track EP of tar-black, bass heavy sonic violence. This EP features 5 reworks of “Salford Priors”, one of the heaviest tracks from his return-to-form album “Over Depth”, the first by Mick Harris himself, and 4 more by his longtime collaborators in the production guises of Fausten, Stormfield, Monster X and Scald Process. 

[Mick Harris version]
The EP begins with an apocalyptic, dubbed out violent reworked by the man himself, creeping in with a cold, calm eerie drone that quickly goes from zero to 100%, blasting into a full force attack of artillery percussion and strafing, shrapnel textures atop the landmine subs and characteristic Harris snarling mono-bass. A calm, desolate atmosphere permeates the barrage, giving an odd stillness to the rhythmic violence.

[Monster X remix]
Formerly London, now Berlin-based sound designer Julien Caraz has caused much distress over the years with the sheer rage and precision sonic assaults of his Monster X project. Here he eschews his usual frenetic tempos for a solid 130BPM, a sleek techno destroyer built for giant spaces and huge soundsystems in mind. Tense, throbbing halftime rhythms that release into a full stampede, metalwork reverberating beside the charging subs.

[Stormfield remix]
The Combat Recordings boss has worked audiovisually with Mick since the Scorn AV at Bangface Weekend in 2011, touring with Fret AV in 2018. Here he  switches back into audio mode to rework Salford Priors into a hard electro assault for the Stormfield remix.
Chopping up the original breakbeat, reworked to attack from different angles, ducking, weaving and striking like a boxer. 
Amid the relentless bassdrum pressure comes a call-and-response interplay between rhythmic elements and fierce technoid bleeps, coaxed out of his beloved Machinedrum. 

[Fausten remix]
Fausten is the shadowy, twisted collaboration between Monster X and Stormfield. Having released a staggeringly twisted album on the legendary Ad Noiseam, Fausten went into hibernation as the pair pursued their own projects, with only a few sporadic tacks surfacing over the years. The pair have been putting together an album’s worth of new material for 2019, beginning with a powerful remix of Salford Priors. Taking Fret back into it’s aquatic, fathoms-deep sonic territory, this remix is a behemoth work that moves at quarter-step tempo,allowing for more physicality and dynamics, the profound pulse of each profoundly deep bassdrum like an underwater volcanic explosion, with skittering percussion the resonates in the stillness.

[Scald Process remix]
Scald is the live-instrumentation collaboration of Stormfield, on this track featuring classical cellist Joe Zeitlin and improvisational violinist Liam Noonan, taking their intricate string recordings and reworking them into a brooding, prowling structure of snarling bass and intricate drumwork. The sinuous strings weave with a lazy elegance like trails of ink through water, surrounded by the insect chatter of the elektron machinedrum in a dusty, demonic fusion of live improvisation and deep, dusty electronics.

Released jointly by Opal Tapes and Combat Recordings. Mastered and cut loud for club DJ use.

Fret: Salford Priors Versions

Artist: Fret (Mick Harris)
Title: Salford Priors Versions
Label: Opal Tapes + Combat Recordings
Format: 12” + Digital
Release date: May 2019
Photography: Alexander Binder
Mastering: Binary Feedback
Press contact:
opaltapes.com
combatrecordings.com

1. Mick Harris version
2. Monster X version
3. Stormfield version
4. Fausten version
5. Scald remix* feat cello by Joe Zeitlin, violin by Liam Noonan

Combat Recordings teams up with Opal Tapes to release Mick Harris, with this 5 track EP of tar-black, bass heavy sonic violence. This EP features 5 reworks of “Salford Priors”, one of the heaviest tracks from his return-to-form album “Over Depth”, the first by Mick Harris himself, and 4 more by his longtime collaborators in the production guises of Fausten, Stormfield, Monster X and Scald Process.

[Mick Harris version]
The EP begins with an apocalyptic, dubbed out violent reworked by the man himself, creeping in with a cold, calm eerie drone that quickly goes from zero to 100%, blasting into a full force attack of artillery percussion and strafing, shrapnel textures atop the landmine subs and characteristic Harris snarling mono-bass. A calm, desolate atmosphere permeates the barrage, giving an odd stillness to the rhythmic violence.

Released jointly by Opal Tapes and Combat Recordings. Mastered and cut loud for club DJ use.

Fret - Salford Priors (Mick Harris remix)

Mick Harris presents Fret - Salford_Priors_MH_version

We kickstart 2020 with the brilliant curveball "Anomaly", and welcome  Metalogue's official entry to the Combat Recordings fold.

A skilled producer and strong affiliate of the Towards Collapse events in London, the hard yet abstract, fierce yet melodic contrasts of Metalogue's production and live sets has put him on the Combat radar for a long time now; we are fortunate to have this great collection of tracks for release. 

Returning to the industrial tempos of his earlier work, Metalogue pushes his characteristically dark, cinematic soundscapes to new extents with crystalline melodies, hard percussion, clattering breaks, razor-sharp synths and enveloping sub-bass.

Drawing influences from works of zonal science fiction, Anomaly was written as a rhizomatic maze, where each track references the others by cyclically recombining, splicing and mutating their sonic material into new forms. This evokes a sense of echoing multiplicity in the listening experience where every track contains warped reflections of other moments in the work.

This process was amplified through several collaborations. East London producer Fluff incorporated harrowing vocal performances and a mesmerizing piano modulation of the core melodic theme, whilst acclaimed noise artist Eye Spirit wrote and performed a narrative contemplation which appears at various points in the record whilst evading presentation in its entirety.

Finally Combat Recordings stalwart Monster X transformed elements from across the whole record into a truly brutal IDM/rhythmic-noise re-imagining of the entire Anomaly concept.

Artwork: Metalogue + Bonnie Baker
Mastering: BinaryFeedback.com
Remix: Monster X

COMBAT041 - Metalogue - Anomaly

artist: Stormfield
title: Collapsing System EP
format: vinyl / digital
cat: COMBAT033
release: mid March 2013
full info: www.combatrecordings.com/weaponry/combat033-stormfield-collapsing-system-ep

Vinyl:
A1 - Rebuild (original)
A2 - Rebuild (DeFeKt remix)
B1 - Collapsing System (Nonima remix)
B2 - Collapsing System (Errorbeauty remix)

Digital:
Rebuild (original)
Rebuild (DeFeKt remix)
Collapsing System (original)
Collapsing System (Nonima remix)
Collapsing System (Errorbeauty remix)
Sea Ice (original)

COMBAT033 is the latest salvo from the uncompromising Combat imprint, with label head Stormfield’s original productions. Though the tracks come in several different styles and tempos, the unifying theme for this release is acid, acid and more acid. 

Rebuild is a 140bpm dark electro beast of broken machine rhythms and huge bassdrums underpinning the dramatic sci fi drones and edgy paranoid strings. Multiple 303 patterns chatter in a 4 way conversation, as the acid structure builds, changes form and builds itself again over a melting 8 minutes.

Collapsing System goes in a cinematic direction instead, conjuring imagery of gigantic structures slowly exploding and crumbling undersea, dense reverbs and echoes resounding in 3 dimensional space. 

Sea Ice is a slow "winter techno" track that calls to mind Antarctic winds, cracking ice floors, marching through thick snow for miles and miles. Similar in style to the dub techno output of Deepchord, but armed with the characteristic snarl and sharp drumwork you’d expect from Combat. Ironically the track was started on one of the hottest weekends in summer, as a way to take the mind off the heat. 

The tracks get the remix treatment from a some new allies to the clan:

Current UK electro scene favourite Defekt has won favour with Rob Booth (Electronic Explorations) and Dave Clarke for his warm, analogue electro and turns Rebuild into a minimalist, bass-heavy dance floor track driven by throbbing, pulsing drum machines and technoid bleeps. 

London-based, Bulgarian-born producer Errorbeauty reworks the tranquility of Collapsing System into relentless  apocalyptic acid, brutal electro designed for lights-out basement style carnage, yet infused with playful bleeps of melodic detail between the jagged rhythms.

Nonima, one of Scotland’s most underrated electronic producers turns in a fierce, technical workout of a track, in the form of a syncopated techno remix reminiscent of some of Surgeon’s early dance floor works. 

This is an EP that wears its rebellious streak on it’s sleeve. But don’t think this is anti-dance music. Scaring your audience and moving them are not mutually exclusive. This is music for dystopian dance floors.

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