Relax

AustralianElectro

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended:
That you have but slumbered here,
While these visions did appear;
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend.
If you pardon, we will mend.
(Shakespeare)

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Bassmelodie | Sommernachtstraum

Freeman Lowell of Valley Forge discusses the track 'Payload' from the album 'Artificial Heart':

"This two-note funk[?] thing that riffs on James Brown, Mike Oldfield and Jean Michel Jarre and changes key every 8 bars just wouldn't go away. It got into my head and kept getting bigger and bigger and more layered - to the point of containing throat-singing and a dulcimer! It's a favourite of mine to play live as it just keeps growing and it likes being played LOUD."

Artificial Heart is one of the most impeccably-crafted albums to be released in the modern Australian electronic music ecosystem. The debut album from Valley Forge is a true synthesis of the organic and synthetic, a new form of transhumanist electronica.
Spanning rich, cinematic synthscapes to intimate and melancholic techno- pop, Artificial Heart is a modified microarray of electro, dub, ambient and world music elements. With influences such as Tangerine Dream, Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, Boards of Canada, Wendy Carlos, BT and Air gene- spliced with sounds from gamelan to gospel, Artificial Heart transforms these nanosonics into a new organism of sound.

Valley Forge was formed by biosonic engineer Freeman Lowell, joining with a selection of notable collaborators on Artificial Heart, including Australian music legend Kamahl, Sydney indie band So I’m Jo’s Glen Cassidy and Japanese experimental music artist Amos Wong. Tracks such as ‘Wayfaring Stranger’, ‘Follow Suit’ and ‘Machine-Built Rhythm’ have preceded the album, with contributions to Clan Analogue compilations Doppler Shift, In Version and Re Cognition anticipating Valley Forge’s first full-length work.
Now Artificial Heart has arrived at its destination – a singularity of pure emotive machinery. Embrace the transformation – implant yours today.

Artificial Heart (catalogue number CA040) is out now from Clan Analogue, distributed by MGM.

Valley Forge - Payload

"The dancefloor has such a tension to it. The tensions of our jobs, our personal lives, literally everything comes out to play when people are dancing. It ensures that the experience of that release will always be a thrilling, humbling one." – @danukauk (@soflute, Manchester)

Find out more: boilerroom.tv/residents-hour-danuka-so-flute

Residents' Hour: Danuka (So Flute)

Army Of One

Friday Morning on the Robot Heart bus was very special for me. The flames of the Catacombs were still high.
Something was dying, something was born.
I was never so nervous, never so relaxed.

Thank You for listening!

Art installation: Roshanai (Illuminate) by Charles Gadeken. 

Photo: John Dill

LUM - Robot Heart - Burning Man 2016

The dance scene in Istanbul might not be one of the most talked about in the world, but whenever it is mentioned it’s impossible not to talk about Zozo. She is a left of centre DJ who was previously in charge of the musical direction of Hush, a gallery and bar on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, and nowadays she plays cult clubs like De School and Salon des Amateurs. She has also put out key cassettes like ‘Witchez of Anatolia’ on Sameheads, as well as being part of the famous curveball label Macadam Mambo. Reaching for curious sounds from her homeland as well as new wave, disco, synth pop, house and acid, a Zozo set of "oriental crime" is as magical as it is mysterious.

And her mix for us is no different. In her own words, "frogs, communication, Russians, aliens, nature, wizards, friends, psychedelia, technology, joy, fear, love, human beings, publicity, toxic world and internet" are all sources of inspiration here and it shows. Her 75 minute set is wholly intoxicating, with synthetic sounds and real world samples, languid grooves and drunken rhythm all slowly unfolding and pulling you into their midst before tripping you out. It's weird and wonderful, and sounds like little else out there right now.

Dekmantel Podcast

Dekmantel Podcast 135 - Zozo

Following on from 2016’s “plastic ambient” album The Month Machine, Melbourne’s microsynth virtuoso Kable54 has turned his hand to creating an album of acid-tinted krautrock jams with electric circuitry and voltage, the superb Volca Galaxies.

Volca Galaxies evolved over 12 months of live performances and improvisational jams around Melbourne using a minimal setup of small portable analogue Korg Volca synths. Kable54 took those jams, polished them up and fed them a diet of East German steroids and West German psychedelics before piecing the whole thing back together again. The record sounds like an energetic, emotional journey through the hypercolour enormity of the Milky Way galaxy. For once we elected to keep the hyperbole to a minimum and let the artist tell his only story….

“Last year, I was sick of making music by sitting in front of the computer, alone. I wanted to play live performances to real people. I wanted to move away from the computer” said Kable54 about his initial motivation. “Then I found out about Korg’s Volca synths when I stumbled on a random youtube clip. Realising this would be a way more intuitive and performative way to make music, I worked some extra shifts to raise some cash and soon had a great little setup sitting on my kitchen table. Then it was goodbye laptop!”

“The development of the album is more like a 70’s rock album than modern EDM thing... songs were written, then tested out by performing in a bar that night. They developed and changed as I roadtested them from gig to gig.  The weaker ones were kicked out of the set, new ones composed and ideas honed for maximum impact”.

“I was performing once a fortnight or so, at pubs, bars, cafes, festivals, wherever. Melbourne’s a great live electronic music scene if you know where to look. After six months or so, it really came together. Instead of individual songs, they started merging, becoming one hour-long piece”.  

When Kable committed his sounds to tape he focused on capturing the live improv spirit. “Recording the album, it was really important to stay true to the live performance... the limitations that live performance has, as well as the limitations of the Volca synths. I wanted to take my live set in its entirety, disassemble all the pieces, polish them up, feed them performance-enhancing drugs, then re-assemble the whole thing”. 

Volca Galaxies, the new album from Kable54, will be launched at Bar 303, 303 High St, Northcote on Saturday 16th of September at Analogue Coordinates, part of Clan Analogue’s 25 Anniversary Electronic Weekend in the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Tickets are available from www.melbournefringe.com.au

Army Of One

Deerman