Cosmin TRG - Platforma Wolff 
November 2024

Cosmin TRG - Platforma Wolff 021124

Dream Horizons

Essential Breath

On June 27, 2025, a long-dormant signal reactivates from Hamburg's hidden places: Helena Hauff and F#X return as Black Sites with R4 on Tresor Records—their first full-length album and the first release under the moniker since 2014. Like a hieroglyphic recently discovered and translated, R4 feels more like a long-awaited resumption than a comeback.

Recorded to tape with minimal editing or post-production the record is a classic example of the symbiotic relationship that can come from the interaction of human and machine. This punk ethos isn't invoked through distortion alone, but through method; in the album's breaking from the received wisdom of hardness tethered to speed as most of the tougher pieces are lower BPM and vice versa (with one notable exception in the mind-melting stomp of BLOKK).

Across ten tracks, Black Sites traverse a landscape where genre dissolves into intention. It migrates through electro's danceability, acid house's corrosion, and into the liminal realm of machine funk—a genre coined by Andrew Weatherall, which sounds like the results of technology dreaming of soul where the emphasis is on live execution, on immediacy over perfection—a sound forged in the act of creating, not polishing.

In a 2013 interview, around the time of the first Black Sites EP, Hauff was quoted as saying that she wants "things to fit together properly, but on another level, I really want them to make sense together." That principle animates R4: The album's form reveals itself in time, with each movement echoing and amplifying the others to create a synergistic whole.

From the opening crawl of C4 (a name that like the music foreshadows the explosions to come) to the end-of-the-night bliss of MOTHERJAM via the intense peaks of BLOKK, 707, and classic acid track 3D it's clear that R4 is a work made with serious intent; a refutation of a world where streaming has made the two-minute single the dominant musical form again. R4 demands immersion, not just attention. It is not a collection of tracks, but a singular, recursive experience: a mirror in which sound and listener repeatedly rediscover one another.

BANDCAMP

Black Sites - FLIKK

Kiosk Radio is an online community radio and streaming platform broadcasting 24/7 from a wooden kiosk in the heart of Brussels’ historic 'Parc Royal'. The radio was founded in 2017 and broadcasts a wide range of music genres, from jazz to experimental, from rock to electronic music.

NVST & Zohar @ Kiosk Radio 17.05.2025

So thrilled to welcome our godmother @jackyjeane for a set full of percussions, vocals and smiles!!!! Make it yours 🪸 full clip on youtube ((in bio))

KW002 ♡ Jacky Jeane

PUNTO ELECTRO 14.6.25 || Omnitron

BUY: https://rcqt.bandcamp.com/album/rqblk01-private-dub

RQBLK01 is the inaugural release of Aotearoa/New Zealand-born turned Naarm/Melbourne-based label Racquet Club's 'black label' series.

A double-single & the debut of One Eight, a dub techno joint designed to push club systems with a remix via Ōtautahi-via-Pōneke producer Shli.

'Private Dub (Shli Remix)', premiered here, is a tough reimagining of One Eight's original track, marrying the recontextualised synths with steppy percussion. Moody music for cold winter days across both Naarm & Ōtautahi alike.

RQBLK01 releases today, July 3rd.

PREMIERE: One Eight- 'Private Dub (Shli Remix)' [Racquet Club]

Sub Basics - Untitled 285

Olgica grew up in Serbia and is now living in Austria. She throws events in both countries and beyond. Left field bass, dub, broken techno, experimental downtempo and dizziyng halftime tunes are attributes of Olgicas sets. Enjoy!

ITPS118 OLGICA

Legendary dub techno artist Paul St. Hilaire (AKA Tikiman) announces new collaborative album, marking 10 years of Kynant Records. 

Building on the success of Paul St. Hilaire’s landmark solo album for Kynant in 2023, w/ The Producers switches up the formula to pair St. Hilaire with a different producer on each track. Referencing fellow dub techno pioneers Mark Ernestus & Moritz von Oswald’s acclaimed album w/ The Artists as Rhythm & Sound, St. Hilaire flips the concept to feature as the lone vocalist.

Over the album’s nine tracks, St. Hilaire offers a range of conscious song-writing and headtop musings, such as the spoken-word dread of “What’s This” or the sparse call-to-action of “Send Them On”. w/ The Producers is yet another essential record in St. Hilaire’s unmatched discography.

The album marks 10 years of Kynant Records, with label owner Richard Akingbehin curating an eclectic but sonically connected group of producers. These include luminaries such as Digital Mystikz boss and dubstep trailblazer Mala, or the elusive Chain Reaction artist Shinichi Atobe. They sit alongside some of the most exciting names in recent electronic music - Batu, Gavsborg, Azu Tiwaline, Priori, Cousin, Russell E.L. Butler, Aurora Halal and DJ G - all of whom bring different elements of dub techno into their productions.

w/ The Producers finds Kynant Records bridging the original voice of dub techno with the genre’s new wave. It’s a statement of intent from the label, which began 10 years ago with deep, hypnotic techno and has veered gradually towards more dubwise sounds.

Mastered by Stefan Betke
Artwork by Grant Gibson
Distributed by N.E.W.S 

D1 Paul St. Hilaire & Gavsborg - Confidential

Carrier feat Gavsborg - The Fan Dance

As a producer, DJ & label owner Cosmin Nicolae’s dedication to developing a rich and wholly personal artistic landscape provides the driving force behind one of dance music’s most unique & industrious individuals.

Opening the door on Hessle Audio over a decade ago - an outlet that has gone on to become a defining voice within electronic music in the 21st Century, Nicolae’s list of affiliations reads like a who’s who of top tier contemporary dance music record labels. Appearances on Amsterdam’s Rush Hour and Gerd Janson’s Running Back, as well as a brace of singles alongside LP’s Gordian and Simulat on the now defunct 50 Weapons - not to mention work for Semantica and Bleep, have cemented Cosmin TRG deep in the psyche of the ever shifting amoeba that is the dance music zeitgeist.

In many ways, what lies at the heart of Nicolae’s work - beyond the extraordinary pairing of high end sound design and club functionality, is an innate ability to bind his discography - to create a streamlined sonic vision without compromise, one that moves with purpose and vigour outwards to explore in depth structures that exist on the very periphery of House & Techno, Ambient & experimental electronics - but maintain a unique and recognisable finish. Few artists could boast a discography that marries 2016’s ubiquitous In Your Body, an anthemic spoken- word-meets-Tool-Techno leviathan released via Nicolae’s own club-focused Sportiv outlet, with Semnal - a gloriously executed LP of shifting, otherworldly Experimental music delivered under the artist’s given name via the Opal Tapes label.

Cult concept missive Hope This Finds You Well, Nicolae’s 2019 reflection on corporate culture furthers this same dichotomy - a stunning wide-angle Ambient LP on Fizic - the label operated by the artist as a home to more conceptual iterations, that followed hot on the footsteps of a remix for Bpitch founder Ellen Alien & the fourth instalment on Sportiv - both offerings heady club constructions in their own right.

On the road, both DJ sets and live performances mirror this healthy sentiment - with Nicolae as comfortable on main stages showcasing his take on hyper-modern propulsive Techno, as he is presenting the low slung avant-garde preoccupations of his more leftfield alias’. There’s the constant feeling that both these practices feed back into one another, and that from each respective vantage point, Cosmin TRG is able to make the kind of dynamic & intuitive artistic decisions that few can - keeping his work fresh & current without concession - ceding to his own desire to further his vision as a creator of sonic abstraction without losing sight of the dance floor.

Cosmin TRG - Platforma Wolff 021124

Cosmin TRG

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