"Cold Crystal Timbres" recalls the immediate past. Hight-tech emotions and synthetic unnaturalness: When sonic hybridities were echoing early 2000s pop.

Once a haven for nerds and enthusiasts, the internet became accessible to many in the early 2010s. Utopias linked to the early internet, such as that of an anonymous and democratic cyberspace, are finally being displaced by a neoliberal Silicon Valley ideology that manifests itself in platforms like Facebook and Amazon.

Rebecca Fuxen and Martin Rovan’s mixtape "Cold Crystal Timbres" pays tribute to the music that emerged from this structural change and aesthetically relates to it. This hybrid music genre, which developed between 2010 and 2015, is characterized by both cold digital sounds and nostalgic pop references. It is embedded in collectives, loose associations, labels, events, or curatorial projects that network primarily through platforms such as SoundCloud and Myspace. Although this music takes place mostly in traditional club settings, it is transnational, digital networking practices that create political activism and solidarity: many collectives establish platforms for DJs, producers, and activists. They reclaim the white- and male-dominated club scene and emphasize the queer context of its genesis and the central role of BPoC within club music.

Listening to the digital, high-resolution sounds of the time one comes to grasp the intersections of digital everyday culture and music as well as the influence that technological developments have on the realities of the artists’ lives.


Credits:
Mixtape by Rebecca Fuxen & Martin Rovan
fkoff1963 - everytime
Rabit - Hex [Tri Angle Records]
boygirl - YE SLOW
Celestial Trax - Secrets [Purple Tape Pedigree]
Blastah - Fica [Mäss]
Sami Baha - Chunk [Planet Mu]
Retina Set - I've Got Feelings Too
SOPHIE - Not Okay [Future Classic]
Lotic - PHLEGM (ZZ GOLOSO EDIT) [NAAFI]
Toxe - Let Me Thru [STAYCORE]
Resla - Nitro [STAYCORE]
Lechuga Zafiro - Agua y Puerta [NAAFI]
MikeQ - The Ha Dub Rewerk'd [Fade To Mind]
Mechatok - Placer [STAYCORE]
Dat Oven - Icy Lake (Total Freedom Remix) [Fade To Mind & Night Slugs]
Toxe x Aaliyah (v1984 edit) [BUILD]

Rebecca Fuxen & Martin Rovan: Cold Crystal Timbres, Mixtape

Expensive Decisions

180 Degrees

Naif (Imaabs Remix) - Single

Xatarra - Naif (Imaabs Remix)

“Within and without are different sides of the same coin, without separation there is no unity. ‘The Illusion Of Separation’ is for those who feel trapped in a situation to find hope and power”

DECISIONS is pleased to welcome Hong Kong based producer ASJ to the label with ‘The Illusion Of Separation’. Deploying a blistering and emotive sonic palette, ASJ explores emotional alienation, difference and the social unity that nonetheless binds us — themes that are especially pertinent in the wake of Hong Kong’s recent political upheaval and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The journey begins with ‘Melancholy’, a distortion-streaked meditation on loneliness and isolation. The richly melodic ‘Pendulum’ speaks to the potential for personal growth that stems from an awareness of the cyclical nature of positive and negative mind states. Imagining life as a video game, ’The Game Host’ features playfully twisted vocals and syncopated percussion to evoke agency beyond systemic rules, while ’Chant To Eternity’ offers an ultra tough sonic aid to personal empowerment by drawing on the spiritually cleansing power of chanting. ‘Sublimity’ completes the release. Arcing from musique concrete into ethereal vocals before arriving at a hypnotically elevated plateau, ASJ considers changes of state in the field of chemistry as an analogue to moments of transcendence in our daily lives.

A distilled and ambitious body of work that captures the deeply personal, social and metaphysical realms, ‘The Illusion Of Separation’ is an affecting and timely new entry into ASJ’s catalogue. A ‘Magic Eye’ style stereogram artwork (view at a large size!) further embodies the illusory and cosmic dimensions of the release.

The Illusion Of Separation

ASJ - The Game Host

@weareasj @decisionsrecords
Read more: pw-magazine.com/2020/premiere-asj-sublimity

Premiere: ASJ »Sublimity«

@xtereaa

Following appearances on NTS and Internet Public Radio, TT are proud to present Xterea’s debut Mystique Messenger.

Characterised by a shock-proof layering of sound and cascading rhythms, Xterea’s productions swarm the stereo field with a disorienting depth.

Demanding the listener’s focus via a dynamic vocal sample from the onset, 707 announces itself with obscured speech fragments flitting around a convulsing central pillar. Matching a muted, frosty synth with heavy drums, Mystique’s looped refrain sets the listener in the centre of a dizzying time lapse. Escape clues are offered via blinking fluctuations in tone and key.

As if gathering strength from the previous tracks, Awe’s hollowed introduction evaporates to reveal the steaming and chaotic ornamentation at its core. Thunderous kick patterns create a synchronous gravitational map; steering listeners away from the path of the approaching tempest.

Mystique Messenger is available via TT from the 17th July.

Xterea - Awe

Michelle brings her varied tastes of club music and r'n'b to the NTS Manchester studio every month. Early september 2020, Michelle invited us to take her radio slot over.

TRACKLISTING :

migu - Leah
HeedLess & Mansa - Call Whisper
Zaliva-D - Groan (Citizen Boy Remix)
Xiao Quan - New Ties
Stasya - Cinza
OCD - Pronounced
Orqualyzer - Inexternal
Cocktail Party Effect & Redders - Talking to Bricks
Soft Matter - No Violence
Maxsta - Locked In (Debba Remix)
Subp Yao - Imatuk
Ship Sket - PUPPET
GUAN - XM Body (feat. Four King)
/pulsr_ - neg_ space
Seven Orbits - Mantis
LCY - Y
Nate Swan & Lithe - No Contact
NATE08 - drgdlah
LV & Josh Idehen - Imminent (Slick Shoota VIP Extended)
Sean Paul - Temperature (POLO LILLI Reheat)
DJ Mastercard - without sound 2k17
DJ Rashad & DJ Spinn - Oh God
RP Boo - Total Darkness
DJ Paypal - ALL MINE (s20e15)
FITNESSS - F20 / FAITH 
African Imperial Wizard - Alī ibn Idrīs
Nahash - The Horns
Soreab - Daisy Gun
Rapid Antics - Spells
Rapala700 - embolia
Viscera - Fifth Threshold
Aïsha Devi - Dislocation of the Alpha
Jeune Faune - Ur World (ft. Pablo Altar)
MICHELANGEL0 - How Frantic It Is To Be Alive In The Year20

Image : Robin Lopvet

NTS // 05.09.20 // Michelle invites Club Late Music

IMAABS guest mix on second half

PART 1 - CORIN 

Jesse Osborne-Lanthier - Catchment Areas (Spiritual Pollution)
Howie Lee - 界行僧 The Border-Walking
GRRL VS 大悲咒 - Impact Mantra (Tzusing Glued)
Arexibo - 4 교각 Bent
RVE - 虫草FIRE Edit
DJ Nativesun - Brainwash Bop
Ipman - Constrict
Hyph11E - Knots
Osheyack & Nahash - Hold Pattern
GRRL - Ape Dub

PART 2 - IMAABS

Asio Otus - Bones
Sueuga Kamau - Debería dejar ft La Favi
Marvin Marlyn - Upope
Nick León - Aguacero
Fumaratto - Me provocas ft Valka (Zutzut Edit)
Fauste - Kebrada
VIsaacor - LVI
Duma - Lionsblood
tropical interface - reborn (A)
Laksa - Sen on One
Imaabs - Simulacro
Maga - Carrera Clandestina
Mana - Tentacle Daemon

Aired on NTS Radio 15 September 2020
https://www.nts.live/shows/corin/episodes/corin-15th-september-2020

NTS MIX - CORIN w/ IMAABS - September 2020

Victor Metske is a Rotterdam-based electronic musician, who is normally known for his energetic club-ready style of production and for the label Bound Centre, which he co-founded with Ice Viper, Imhotel & Ezra V. On katharsis, he presents a more introspective and thoughtful side of himself with his EP “In The Midst Of Things”, which seems to stem from this weird year of isolation and quarantine. 

The 4 tracks of the EP send us on a contemplative journey through our feelings, spanning from the blissful pads on the beautiful opener “Flour On Her Feet” to the more disturbing and anxious plucked strings on “First Sight”. Metske states the following about the release:

“In the midst of things, in between life changing events and entirely new daily routines there were small moments where I could sit down and reflect. The four tracks of this EP were created in these small pockets of time. During the pregnancy of my girlfriend, after the birth of our son, at the arrival of a global crisis. 

Melodic and atmospheric elements previously hidden in my send channels have been braving the foreground of my productions for a while now. But more recently I've been able to use these elements to translate the weight of recent events directly into some of my music. All four tracks represent very personal abstract feelings that I could never put to words.

Within these four tracks I can hear feelings of joy, love, doubt and melancholy scream back at me. I can hear myself settling into a new world, struggling with relinquishing control and discovering calmth.”

In The Midst Of Things

Victor Metske - First Sight

https://soundcloud.com/kelman-duran x Avant

A real Master of Ceremony in its most original and ancient definition will guide us through a journey for the mind and the body into the hottest, meditative and nostalgic carribean rythms and sounds. Moments of meditation could represent at once the time to surrender to the soundsystem.
Selected for your souls by the legendary Kelman Duran

Streamed November 20 2020 on RadioVirus, Macaomilano

Kelman Duran - Avant Radio mix n.58

Music to move people. Run by @airmax97 since 2015.

Please don't DM here. Email: info at decisionsrecords dot net