: Kölsch • Gui Boratto • GAS • Weval • The Field • GusGus • Michael Mayer • WhoMadeWho • John Tejada • Thomas Fehlmann • Superpitcher • Jürgen Paape • Agents Of Time • Rex The Dog • BLOND:ISH • Terranova • The Orb • Robag Wruhme • Matias Aguayo • COMA – :

Kompakt_part3

Closer Music - Departures

Starting out in 2001 to tie up some loose ends from our regulars, SPEICHER has since become a guarantee for vanguard dance sounds from all over the planet, allowing KOMPAKT to invite and support electronic artists that comfortably inhabit both the delicate and the more deliberate ends of the electronic music spectrum. For SPEICHER 83, Italian tag team HUNTER/GAME present two hand-cranked live jams rich in atmospheric detail and flattening punch. Due to the somewhat non-negotiable nature of a hardware live jam, you'd be forgiven to expect a certain sloppiness in the details that most real-time composers make more than up for in energy and perseverance – let us introduce you, then, to HUNTER/GAME, the duo of Italian producers based in Milan and New York who seem to effortlessly combine the intimate intricacy of a studio layout with the powerful punch of a stage combo. Immediately convincing listeners with some pretty masterful execution skills, both cuts HEXAGON and BERMUDA go on to sneak into anthem territory, patiently adding layer after layer of sonic imagination to a strong assortment of core beats. An absolute must for any discerning fan of hand-cranked electronic bliss with an edge.

Hunter/Game - Bermuda

Buy/stream: kompakt.fm/releases/the_floor_is_lava_2xlp_dl

Michael Mayer albums don’t come round too often, which is one of many reasons why his fourth collection, The Floor Is Lava, is a genuine event. It’s been eight years since his last one, the collaborative & released on !K7; its predecessors, Mantasy (2012) and Touch (2004), took their sweet time, too. It’s no real surprise, given the many hats Mayer wears – globetrotting DJ, revered remixer, inveterate collaborator, and boss of both Kompakt and Imara – that his solo productions are relatively sparing. But this also speaks to their quality: Mayer’s name on a record sleeve is a sign of quality, of music that’s both looking to the future and calling back to the past, that balances the imperatives of the dancefloor and the loungeroom, that’s as exploratory as it is functional.

On The Floor Is Lava, Mayer seems to be taking the temperature of both the music that surrounds him (past and present), and the ideas of the industry he works within. There’s that iconic album title, for a start. “The album’s mindset,” he says, reflecting on those four words together. For Mayer, it’s partly a critique of the way the industry boxes in both producer and listener, focuses them on genre, on market, on the next new thing: “Being a free minded spirit that transcends genres has become an uphill battle.” A battle worth fighting, though, and with The Floor Is Lava, the result is an album that’s varied, quixotic, idiosyncratic, charming, and deeply, addictively listenable.

Throughout, Mayer finds thrills in exploration and juxtaposition, allowing unexpected things to blossom and giving them their life, their platform, throwing the listener exciting curveballs: “It’s a DJ album by a DJ that’s easily bored.” Either easily bored, or endlessly curious, The Floor Is Lava is rich with ideas. It opens with “The Problem”, which looks back to look forward, embracing the rickety way early house productions threw samples together with gleeful abandon. Mayer mentions Pal Joey, and the scene around Rockers Hi-Fi and their Different Drummer imprint, as reference points, and you can hear that freewheeling spirit throughout.

That’s The Floor Is Lava: then and now, brainwaves and nerve structures, problems and solutions, genres on fire; the real, the unreal, and the surreal. An album for the easily bored and the endlessly curious. Mayer has the last word, telling us all you need to know about the album’s spirit: “Burning for the cause, being zealous, being addicted to the heat of the night, the exuberant powers of music.”

The Floor Is Lava

The Problem

Michael Mayer - The Problem

Revered Danish producer and live performer KÖLSCH follows his 2013 hit album "1977" (KOMPAKT 276 CD 107) with the new full- length "1983", again chaining up heroic techno tracks for a grandiose sonic journey to the vibrant heart of today's dance floor. Coupling contemporary production pizzaz with nostalgia-tinged soundscapes and sweeping melodies, this opus acts as both a skilfully composed portfolio of personal memories and a sublime collection of crowd-charming cuts - a modern classic in the making, coming from a master of his craft.

Hot on the heels of SPEICHER 84 (KOMPAKT EXTRA 84), featuring club crackers DERDIEDAS and TWO BIRDS, the latest full-length offering from KÖLSCH is very much a travel album: "When I was a kid in 1983, we used to drive through Europe every summer on the way to the south of France", he explains. "A lot of my early music memories stem from these long travels, as we would listen to all my father's favorite records on the cassette deck. After getting a walkman, I would make up my own soundtrack for travelling, with early electro and hip hop creeping into my life. My father of course did not like it, and it never grace the official cassette deck of the car, obviously"
These trips became a primary source of inspiration to a hungry young mind forced to sit on the backseat of a car for several days: "they were also journeys through the seasons. In Denmark, it would be spring time, so I could nearly see us driving through spring into the summer. The scenery would change, and so would the mood in the car." Informed by the symbolic quality of these slightly gauzy childhood memories, KÖLSCH's unique melange of emotional and functional elements works exceptionally well for the full-length format - a seamless transition of musing introspection and explosve expression, where catharsis never seems far away in dance-ready techno vignettes like MOONFACE, UNTERWEGS or PACER.

From beatless opener and title track 1983 to the filigreed piano banger DIE ANDEREN or the bleep-infused synth-fest E45, each cut operates as its own little time capsule, storing bits and pieces of recollection and then magically transforming them into epic, beat-driven soundscapes. Confronted with other producers' input (and other memories), these traits find themselves extended in the most interesting ways - TALBOT, THE ROAD and CASSIOPEIA (also featured on KOMPAKT EXTRA 79) make excellent use of GREGOR SCHWELLENBACH's emotive orchestral flourishes, while BLOODLINE's lyrics come to life thanks to the distinct timbre of TOMAS HØFFDING of WHOMADEWHO fame. A new powerful take on an earlier collaboration, P AP AGENO 30 YEARS LATER not only rejoins WAA INDUSTRY on vocal duty, but also ends the album on a wonderfully elegiac, yet hopeful note - basically turning water into wine, as we've come to expect from KÖLSCH.

• The follow-up to KÖLSCH's much-acclaimed full-length "1977"
• A sublime collection of melodic techno vignettes between musing introspection and explosive expression
• 2xLP+CD edition pressed on 180gr vinyl


Buy Kompakt.fm

Kölsch - Bloodline (feat. Tomas Hoeffding Of WhoMadeWho)

Kölsch - Die Anderen

Kölsch - The Road (feat. Gregor Schwellenbach)

Kölsch - Pacer

Kölsch - Moonface

Kölsch - Talbot (feat. Gregor Schwellenbach)

Kölsch - 1983

Reinhard Voigt - The Buddy

OUT NOW!

Veritable pioneers of electronic music, iconic act THE ORB returns to Kompakt with the new full-length MOONBUILDING 2703 AD - another major slice of psychedelic synth bliss, obscure loops and deep ambient textures tossed in swinging breakbeats and powerful basslines. Installing a forward momentum rather unusual for a genre-defying project like this, the latest effort from masterminds Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann follows their 2005 album success on Kompakt, the cheekily named "Okie Dokie It's The Orb On Kompakt" (KOMPAKT CD 45), as well as several contributions to our Speicher and Pop Ambient series - but more importantly, it finds the legendary duo at the peak of its creativity, ringing in another essential phase in what can only be called a ground-breaking career.

True to form, the new offering MOONBUILDING 2703 AD features a small track list, but turns each one of its four cuts into a mini epic in its own right. Opener GOD'S MIRRORBALL hits the ground floating, employing a handful of cozy statics to great effect before finally discharging into an intricate mosaic of atmospheric melodic sketches and gripping rhythms. With a hypnotic runtime of more than 14 minutes, it immediately establishes a blueprint for the other album tracks to follow, perfectly illustrating the vast extent of the artists' vision and their impressive skills in luring in listeners - welcome to THE ORB's sonic labyrinth, where nothing is what it seems and the unexpected waits just around the corner.

Likewise, follow-up track MOONSCAPES 2703 BC presents itself as a uniquely versatile affair sitting comfortably between ambient flourishes and beat-driven focus, holding as many twists and turns as a caper movie, but carefully grounding every single one of its cliffhangers in its impeccable flow. With a runtime of approximately 9 minutes, LUNAR CAVES is the shortest jam of the bunch - and also the most ethereal, keeping its rhythmic content to a bare, pulse-like minimum and opting for enticing, freewheeling synth textures instead. Album closer and title cut MOONBUILDING 2703 AD introduces a surprisingly jazzy vibe mingling rather well with the wealth of electronic tricks up its sleeve - even indulging in abrasive bass sweeps and a breathtaking multitude of different rhythm sections constantly switching places. It's a fitting closing act for a full- length as multifaceted as this, as idiosyncratic as possible and as muscling as needed.

BUY DELUXE VINYL SPECIAL EDITION: http://www.kompakt.fm/releases/moonbuilding_2703_ad_special_edition

The Orb - Moonbuilding 2703 AD

The Orb - Lunar Caves

The Orb - God's Mirrorball

Remixes for the new amazing Blond:ish track "Endless Games" from their forthcoming album on Kompakt.

Now available on Beatport:
https://pro.beatport.com/release/endless-games/1571079

Blond:ish - Endless Games (Patrice Bäumel Dub Mix)

Blond:ish - Endless Games (Patrice Bäumel Mix)

"Nai Nai" by @partok Matushka Apfelberg will be released by @kompakt on July 27, 2015. Find out more about the release here (in German): http://bit.ly/pflbrgnn

Partok Matushka Apfelberg - Nai Nai

Beatport: http://btprt.dj/1TLQr2v
Deezer: http://bit.ly/1SVbTzM
iTunes: http://apple.co/1E4lbTk
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1MGdnOG
Wimp: http://bit.ly/1JHdXLa

Kompakt_part3

John Dum's