harder!

MD5 : 1e9c50c53fd4304ed3d762b5a97c220c
Operative : 0137-DT

Robust

Robust (Jake Conlon Remix)

Cat-No: F//008
Kontravoid - Undone

One can imagine, listening to Kontravoid’s latest release, an alternate reality in which the cold-war played out to the background of drum machines and spectrographs, sinister audio technology manipulating a hidden frequency of the world’s unfoldings. Cameron Findlay returns to his masked alias for the first Kontravoid release since his debut self-titled album, years in the studio reap their rewards as the production on ‘Undone’ effortlessly cuts its way through hypnotic dance floor compositions.

‘Hold Nothing’ implements perfect song structure, with precise breaks, ferocious snare builds and simple repeated vocal phrases enveloping the main groove in symbiosis. A playful criminality sets the mood of the record here, one for pouted lips and furrowed brows on bunker, basement dance-floors.

‘The Last Thing’ is a straight forward dance floor stomper, arpeggiated synths batter the listener like blunt instruments, locking the body in a rhythmic cell, dissonant, steam whistle drones contrast with gurgling, radio transmission synths to shift the balance of the parts from uplifting wooze to downcast dance automaton.

‘Not Your Dream’ opens with a moment of primitive, science-lab techno, echo laden vocal jabs open the door to new-beat territory while the synth lines swing between pure rhythm and hypnogogic, alley-chase sound track, clocking in at seven and a half minutes, this is another track destined for synth-wave, dance floor greatness.

‘Undone’, the self-titled track from the release focuses on softer-synths and pads, still motivated by driving drums and percussion, the vision of a lone, masked figure emerges, cutting a path through mud and snow, factories half submerged in some destroyed, industrial miasma. Muttered vocals set a strict grounding to the piece, keeping the track from escaping into sentimentality, layers of cold synth melodies artfully weave between percussive crescendos as radio static crackles distantly.

As a natural companion to the record Schwefelgelb close with a remix of ‘Hold Nothing’, where the percussion is stripped back to its bare necessities and the synth parts are sliced down into even more pointed arpeggiations.

With his concrete approach to song writing and bear-trap grasp of dance floor composition, Kontravoid cements his reputation as one of the stand out voices in the current new-beat, synth wave scene.

Tracklist:
A1 - Hold Nothing
A2 - The Last Thing
B1 - Not Your Dream
B2 - Undone
B3 - Hold Nothing (Schwefelgelb Remix)

B3 Kontravoid - Hold Nothing (Schwefelgelb Remix)

B1 Kontravoid - Not Your Dream

A1 Kontravoid - Hold Nothing

Cat-No: F//009
Fractions - Control

Fractions eschew biographical identity in their debut release for Berlin’s FLEISCH records. A potent mix of EBM, techno, breakbeat, electro, acid and horror-soundtrack provides only a title, ‘Control’, S&M leaning artwork that seems to reference Dali’s ‘In Voluptas Mors’ and a one-line manifesto: MAKE DEAD DANCE.

True to these words, established formalities are cast aside as the record
begins without ceremony; barrel-reverb percussion strikes, a hard hitting straight snare and vinyl crackle ambience set the tone; once the 4/4 kick hits, the basis of ‘Control’ is established. The first four tracks explore EBM, new-beat and acid within the 120-125bpm spectrum, horror-sci-fi pads weave between razor sharp arpeggiations, distorted 303 squelch emerges from doomsday sirens and in the vocal sample taken from the title track, a single, ominous voice urges the
listener to ‘control your mind’.

The final two tracks explore more broken, stepping rhythms, the
extended middle section of ‘Celestial’ transitions from pads that wouldn’t sound out of place in Aphex Twin’s ambient works into a cold John Carpenter-esque piano loop; the final track ‘Inhale/Exhale’ picks up the tempo but focuses on a slowly building frenzy of percussion and arpeggiation, with a snare drum that gradually gathers intensity as the track progresses, tying the swarming rhythm together and closing the record with the anticipation of a drop that never
manifests.

For a debut EP, Fraction’s ‘Control’ shows a markedly developed voice in tying together genres under a haze of dance-floor gloom.

Tracklist:

A1 - I.B.M.
A2 - MCDVIII
A3 - Welcome to 303 City
B1 - Control
B2 - Celestial
B3 - Inhale/Exhale

Mastering by Eric Van Wonterghem, PRODAM BERLIN
Artwork by Plástica

Robust (Jake Conlon Remix)

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