Astral

After the success of their debut Polina EP (as played by Dixon, Tale of Us, Agoria ), Agents of Time return to Correspondant with their most powerful work to date. 

The Emperor EP sees their sound growing to fill the worlds biggest dance floors, but without losing the signature emotional and cerebral edge which gives their music a notably personal and intimate feel. 

Title track, “Emperor”, has as anthemic a feel as its regal title would suggest. Ploughing a grand and emotional furrow, but with a driving techno Aesthetic.

“Metamorfosi” is a deeper affair, which builds to a tense, spectral conclusion that is simultaneously dramatic and, dare we say it, heart wrenching. 

Hydra is the most minimal track on the EP, yet still manages to be at once dubbed out and theatrical, with skittering and shuffling percussion throughout.

Nazgul continues the tradition of left field house as championed by Correspondant, and as exemplified by label artist Andre Brattan with his track Tromer Og Bass, but with an added horror soundtrack flair which only the Italians can truly bring.

Emperor EP is due out via Correspondant on May 04. 


Agents of Time - Metamorfosi

Buy on bandcamp

Blaise Amoussou - Ancêtres (Vocal)

Brand new single which precedes the release of Recondite's upcoming album 'PLACID' - Placid will be released in October as 2LP + 2CD. CD version will feature 'Placid' as well as Bonus 'On Acid' - Recondites first Album first Time on CD ! 

A1 - Limber

Ancêtres

Buy On Bandcamp

Blaise Amoussou - Ancêtres

Cover art: original photography taken in London and digitally synthesized with Photoshop. No AI was used in producing cover art as well as music.

Mescalbean

Alex Niggemann’s AEON label mirrors the peak time DJs sets that the supremely talented Berliner plays, staying focused on conjuring up the spirit of classic and timeless house and techno, updating it and creating new boundless possibilities for the future. Since launching the label in 2013 Alex has been gradually building a family of like-minded creative individuals to keep the AEON ethos moving ever forward.

As with AEON 18 however, Alex Niggemann steps up with another landmark voyage into the realms of melodic, deep techno, delivering two tracks with a sound that defines a very popular and relevant style. Divergent is a stirring track with stabbing synths and a breakbeat drum pattern, punctuated by an evocative drop around half way through the track. As is customary on Alex Niggemann AEON releases, the B-Side, Luminance, takes things into deeper territory, with a rolling bassline and a deep percussive groove.

Another fantastic release from the all conquering label, and a one in particular that has been played throughout the whole summer in almost every set by Tale Of Us (including at Circoloco), Mind Against (e.g. in their Boiler Room set) and Scuba.

AEON is a home to cutting-edge artists who are bold enough to breathe life into their productions with true emotion. AEON stands for people who walk their own path, who dance just the way they feel, celebrating and being passionate about what they do without following hype, or rules, or trends.

Alex Niggemann - Divergent

Get SVT200 Stil vor Talent Berlin: Alexanderplatz here: 
/ iTunes: apple.co/2u6HX3e
/ Beatport: bit.ly/2vs2WwF

Artist: Various Artists
Title: Stil vor Talent Berlin: Alexanderplatz
Label: Stil vor Talent 
Catalogue No: SVT200
Release: 2017-08-25

w/ Axel Eilers, Ben Weber, Bjoern Stoerig, Boy Next Door, Channel X, Deorbiting, EdOne, Epitacius, Fideles, Hidden Empire, HRRSN, Jiggler, Julian Wassermann, Kedra, Kellerkind, Mees Salomé, Metodi Hristov, Moonwalk, Niconé, Niko Schwind, Oliver Koletzki, Pete Oak, Prismode, Reinier Zonneveld, Sam Shure, Several Definitions, Solvane, Teenage Mutants, Township Rebellion, Transcode

To celebrate our 200th release, the fourth installment of the “Stil vor Talent Berlin” compilation series brings forth a group of old and new faces, who exclusively contributed unreleased tracks, gathered under the umbrella of Berlin's metaphorical aorta.

Alexanderplatz – or more specifically, its TV tower the 'Fernsehturm' – is one of the city's most iconic spots, bustling with locals and tourists alike. A stroll through its subjacent U-Bahn station exemplifies Berlin's multitude and diversity like no other place in the city.

As always, music is the common denominator and Oliver Koletzki delivers the perfect soundtrack with this new release, while Chrisse Kunst renders the visual.

/ Homepage: www.stilvortalent.de
/ Facebook: facebook.de/stilvortalent
/ Spotify: open.spotify.com/user/stil_vor_talent
/ Soundcloud: soundlcloud.com/stilvortalent
/ Youtube: youtube.com/stilvortalenttv
/ Online-Shop: www.shop.stilvortalent.de/
/ Twitter: twitter.com/_StilvorTalent
/ Instagram: instagram.com/stilvortalentmusic

Moonwalk - Labyrinth [Snippet]

Midnight Juggernaut EP

Abandoned Soul (Recondite Remix)

maceo plex - mutant pulse feat paradigm (LEKTRK pat-down)

Now Here No Where

Romtech User Manual

For Rune Reilly Kölsch, Kompakt has become a great label to call home. In 2013 the German imprint celebrated 20 years of record releases at the cutting edge of electronic music, championed in June by one of the most genre re-defining albums and personal music projects for an era: Kölsch’s landmark long player, ‘1977’.

A melodic autobiography on black wax, the Kölsch project has seen 36/37-year-old Rune take stock of a diverse and successful production career and draw upon his own personal beginnings: a nostalgia for childhood, family, friends and the confusion of applying his split-cultural heritage to what it means to think of ‘home’. As Rune freely admits, “being half Irish, half German and living in Denmark – it was all one big messy period of my life.” 

Born to hippie parents in the freetown of Christiania (a commune-like autonomous borough of the Danish capital Copenhagen) his childhood was spent surrounded by creativity. His mother was an artist whose family had roots in German politics and his father a singer songwriter who travelled through Asia playing music in the early 70's. Kölsch, however, did miss out on building friendships and found solace in making up “this imaginary world that I would spend days in,” before the family moved to Germany – a period of memories, relations and characters from which ‘1977’ derives its titles.

For Rune, the tracks he began building from 2010 took in this personal reflection, his being “completely locked in to reminiscing about what shaped me as a kid and into the individual that I am now” – contemplating his unique past to form the brickwork of ‘1977’, one of the most future-facing techno albums of recent years.

Influenced by hip hop, pop and the incredible legacy of Jeff Mills and Derrick May, Rune started producing in 1995, embarking on a string of success stories. In 2003 he released the multi-million selling, saxophone-infused ‘Calabria’, that saw collaboration requests pouring in from artists as diverse as Nicki Minaj, Shakira and Flo Rida. He then set up Tattoorecs – releasing pioneering underground tracks with no titles, just tattoos for artwork, that garnered critical acclaim and support from minimal and techno trailblazers such as Sven Väth, Richie Hawtin, Magda, Tiefschwarz and Ricardo Villalobos.

This appreciation of the complete musical spectrum has gifted Rune with a devotion to groove and melodics and with it the dexterity to input real creative change to the genres he reveres, not least his beloved techno. “2010 was the year of the ketamine house wave, where the music was 118 bpm and everything was extremely boring”, reflects Rune. “I wanted some melodic techno, some energy back in this scene. People needed the energy to express themselves and go crazy for a bit.”

This notion faced opposition, even from within Rune’s close circles. But it was Kompakt founder Michael Mayer who had the insight to see what Kölsch was trying to achieve. Rune’s conviction that vibrations and melodics are the key to human response had tipped the balance, underlined by his experience as a hip hop DJ where he “needed something to catch me and drag me in. And that’s what techno should do!” Here too he drew on his love of Jeff Mills and Derrick May, recalling how “they used to make mistakes all the time. It would be a big mash of all kinds of stuff, but at least something was happening. That’s what I was missing and that’s what I’m trying to change with the Kölsch project.”

The result is ‘1977’, a personal collection of dancefloor destroyers that are continuing to send clubs and festivals across the globe into melodic supernova. Take this video of Kölsch’s set at Belgium’s I Love Techno festival, one of Rune’s 2013 highlights, where “people were doing sit downs, singing along to all the tracks”. Watch it. It puts the hairs up on the back of your neck. “The response was overwhelming,” said Rune in a recent interview with Mixmag (who named Kölsch as one of their ‘Stars Of 2013’), as “when you think about it, it was just a bunch of childhood memories with a kickdrum underneath.” 

Elsewhere he’s ripped up the airways with an acclaimed Essential Mix for Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1, delivered his incendiary soundscape to Singapore’s world-renowned ZoukOut Festival, boomed his live show through the heaving basement of London’s XOYO and played the hallowed Space Terrace – in his words “a boyhood dream since I started going to Ibiza in 1999. That was what I wanted from life!” So opening Amnesia in 2014 with Joris Voorn will be a bonus then...

While these are reasons enough to keep the beaming smile beneath Kölsch’s trademark black fedora, his humility remains just as striking. While tracks like ‘Goldfisch’ have taken pivotal positions in the set lists of world class DJs from across the dance music spectrum – traversing the underground with Seth Troxler, while simultaneously providing credible new euphoric highs for the likes of Axwell – Rune remains joyously down to earth. All despite producing, with ‘1977’, an album that has crossed as many cultural and musical boundaries as his own childhood past.

From the face-twisting melodic drive of ‘Opa’ and ‘Bappedekkel’, to the chord-surfing piano groove of ‘Der Alte’ and the euphoric crescendos of ‘Lorely’, ‘Oma’ and ‘All That Matters’ (all hits in different countries), the fact remains that whether in your living room, on the dancefloors of the world’s greatest parties, or simply in your headphones on your way home, Kölsch’s ‘1977’ has re-defined techno and become an achievement that speaks for itself. 

Words: Phil Dudman – Clubs & Live Music Editor, Mixmag
