Category: Techno

Live: Orbital, Tone Ranger, and Greg Haus – Radius, Chicago, IL – March 23, 2024

If you were lucky enough to catch them, rave legends Orbital are doing a limited tour throughout the U.S.: New York, Chicago, Miami, and two sets at this year’s Coachella Festival. That’s it. Somehow, the Chicago show wasn’t sold out (and was stunningly affordable), and I scored two tickets to see the lads.

Up first was a pretty cool DJ named Greg Haus, who put on a good set to get the crowd to the spacious floor and moving.

Haus spun for about an hour, and he was followed by Tone Ranger – who walked to the decks with a guitar over one shoulder. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, and it turned out to be a mix of house, ambient, and spaghetti western music. “I’m all in,” I told my girlfriend.

Orbital had a good, fun crowd by the time they came on stage. Opening with “Smiley” and moving onto hot tracks like “Where Is It Going?” and newer stuff like “Dirty Rat” featuring Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods.

“Satan” was an unexpected deep cut, “Halcyon On and On” was another great classic cut, and the whole crowd was jumping and moving by this point. The crowd, by the way, was a fun mix of people in their 20’s, partying Latinas, goths, senior citizens, and old school ravers like yours truly.

“Spicy,” with its Spice Girls samples, was a big hit, “Chime” was lovely live, and the encore, “Lush” was mind-altering.

It was a beautiful show that felt like a vintage 1990s rave. Seriously, it was like stepping out of a time machine and into a moment when everyone still loved each other and believed good times and an amazing future were still ahead.

I don’t know if you’re planning on going to Coachella this year, but don’t miss Orbital on either weekend if you’re there.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Green Velvet – Whatever (2001)

House and techno music were in a weird spot as the 1990s were ending and a new century was beginning. People had been raving away through the nights and early mornings of the 1990s in anticipation of living in a future that would, of course, never truly arrive. How would techno evolve in this new world / era?

Green Velvet had a pretty good idea how: Mix a bit of industrial music with trance and house, don’t skimp on the partying, and take the new century as it comes, baby. He released the perfectly titled Whatever just as the new millennium launched, summing up everyone’s attitude after the spectre of the Y2K apocalypse turned out to be a Scooby-Doo-style faker.

Opening track “Genedefekt” is almost like the opening theme of a video game with its 16-bit bleeps, but the thumping bass and machine drums elevate to something with a bit of menace – not unlike how a lot of people envisioned the next century as it arrived. That arrival, and not knowing what was coming next, is summed up in GV’s big hit, “La La Land.” The catchy bass and gets in your head and won’t escape as GV sings, “I’ve been the one to party until the end. Looking for the after-party to begin.” Like a lot of us, GV was there dancing until the end of the previous century and hoping the next one would be an even better after-party.

Also like a lot of us, GV was wondering if he should reinvent himself, and even how to do so, in the new millennium. “Stranj” has him singing, “For the first time I’m starting to realize I need to come down from this high, and be that person my family wants me to be – a model citizen of society.” GV calls out people who try to sabotage his dreams, racists, haters, and people living in fear on “When?”, and gives them rapid, energetic beats to shake them out of their brain fog.

“Sleepwalking” is a salute to “the weird ones” (“not the cool kids”) who find solace in the night and self-harm. GV hopes they’ll realize “Hatin’ themselves doesn’t make them happy.” “Stop Lyin'” is, as the kids call it, a banger – and a classic one at that. The near-goth synth-bass is outstanding, and the industrial beats would do Nitzer Ebb proud…as would the following near-instrumental track, “Minimum Rage,” with its alarm clock sounds, throbbing beats, and sampled crowd chants. It instantly brings to mind visions of people in black rubber shirts dancing under strobe lighting.

“GAT (The Great American Tragedy)” has GV screaming “Do what you like if you feel right!” by the end of it. It’s a panicked, wild track boiling with anger at being told what to do from every angle all the time. “Waitin’ 4 the Day2End” is a slice of GV’s life as he goes down to the corner diner and starts his own daily grind…along with everyone else around him from the guy next to him, the “old friend hooked on heroin,” and a party promoter who appears to be in a lot of trouble. The album ends with “Dank” – a snapping, double-dutch beat song about smoking weed that turns into a bumping floor-filler just when you think it’s finished.

That’s how Green Velvet was going into the new millennium – reflective, angry, high, and aching to get the rest of us off our assess to create the future we wanted in the here and now.

But, you know, whatever.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Fake Youth Cult – White Light / Black Noise

Fake Youth Cult is actually Dutch artist Richard van Kruysdijk, who created his new EP, White Light / Black Noise, with minimal arrangements. “The concept behind the songs is: create one song a day with a minimal, mainly analogue setup. Just a few synths, some drum samples, a sequencer and GO!” – he says in the press release sent to me. The result is an impressive work that mixes dark techno with some punk, and one track is even meant for a ballet performance.

The trolling synth-bass of “Visitor” grabs your attention right away, and you feel like you’re about to enter a combat arena filled with menacing robots. “Scorched” is probably how the dance floor is left after it’s played, as it’s full of powerful synths and hot, crashing beats.

Then along comes “Messing,” which will become your new favorite industrial dance track. It hits all the right beats and notes, transporting you to dark clubs in places with leaky ceilings and sweaty people who may or may not be undead fiends. “Smear” roars right by you like an out-of-control truck hauling scrap metal.

“Management” starts off side B (if you’re hearing this on vinyl) with pulsing sounds that mimic a lover’s heartbeat in the throes of rapturous sex. The looped, echoing vocals of a woman saying, “I feel…I see…I touch…I need…More…” are alluring and haunting. “Pulsar,” the closing track, is the one made for a ballet performance. van Kruysdijk often collaborates with dance troupes, and this track, with its relentless kick drum and buzzing, ticking motor-like beats, must create quickened heart rates in the dancers and audience.

The whole EP is like that, really. It’s heart-racing. Brace yourself before you play it.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Dan at Discipline PR!]

Review: Anja Huwe – Codes

Back in the early 1980s, Anja Huwe was the lead singer (although not originally by choice) of German post-punk pioneers Xmal Deutschland. The band tore across the world, inspiring many and becoming somewhat secret legends before they split up for other ventures. Huwe became a fashion model and visual artist, but music was still in her blood. Now, almost out of nowhere, she’s returned with a new album, Codes, and is exploring what it’s like to live in extremes – be it extreme environments, relationships, or beliefs.

Beginning with gothic, lonely guitar chords by fellow Xmal Deutschland bandmate Manuela Rickers, “Skuggornas” has Huwe confessing, “I don’t regret anything I’ve done. I have lived, and I have sinned.” Most of us can’t admit half of that, and here Huwe is doing it with elegance. “Rabenschwarz” (“Black Raven”) hits with powerful industrial crunch and themes of rebirth.

“I changed myself into myself,” Huwe sings on “Pariah.” The drum beats on it start at a slow boil and are soon cooking a luxurious brew. “Exit” moves around you like a cat that might be an android in disguise. Rickers’ guitar sounds like its being played in an abandoned factory a half-mile away (to produce a cool effect, mind you). “O Wald” (“Oh Forest”) could easily fit into a science fiction movie or the soundtrack to season five of Stranger Things with its computer-generated 16-bit-like synth beats.

“Zwischenwelt” (“Intermediate World”) would also fit on that soundtrack with both its theme of being between worlds and also its misty synths and Huwe’s beautiful vocals on it. “Sleep with One Eye Open” reminds me a bit of early Peter Gabriel tracks with its neat bass line, slightly weird percussion, and Huwe’s delivery. “How shall we face the cold?” Huwe asks on the somewhat stark, yet aggressive “Living in the Forest” – inspired by diary entries of a boy, Moshe Shnitzki, who left his home in 1942 to live in the White Russian Forest. “The woods are lovely, dark and deep,” she sings on the following, closing track, “Hideaway,” leaving us with hope that more music from Huwe (and Xmal Deutschland?) will come.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Kate at Stereo Sanctity.]

Operator Music Band drop a killer new track – “As It Goes.”

photo by Sable Yong
Operator Music Band — the Brooklyn-based project made up of Dara Hirsch, Jared Hiller, and Daniel Siles — announces the EPFour Singles. The project showcases the band’s thrilling foray into acid-tinged dance music, slated for release on March 22 via Deep Break Records. 

While working on this batch of tracks with producers Mike Bloom (XL) and Noah Prebish (Psymon Spine), Hiller suffered a life-threatening accident. He was sent plummeting over 20 feet through a warehouse skylight—directly into Rough Trade’s warehouse, no less. This led to Operator Music Band postponing material, while Hiller recovered from significant physical trauma: two broken wrists, six broken ribs, and facial fractures that resulted in permanent hearing loss. 
Now, mostly healed and rejuvenated, the live-electronic trio are ready to resume releasing music, starting with the new single “As It Goes.” It’s accompanied by a music video, premiering via BrooklynVegan. Shot and edited by Hiller, the visual compiles footage surrounding his recovery, featuring friends and collaborators in candid moments captured with an observational charm.
WATCH: “AS IT GOES”

Originally emerging in the mid-2010s as part of a wave of talk-singing, “krautish” rock acts, Brooklyn-based Operator Music Band’s existence has been marked by highs and lows. Formed around the partnership of Dara Hirsch and Jared Hiller, who are joined by a rotating cast of musicians — which currently includes percussionist and longtime collaborator Daniel Siles — Operator Music Band has put out two LPs, three EPs, and a handful of singles that merge krautrock, art-pop and occasional post-punk sensibilities. Actively releasing and touring between 2015 and 2019, the simultaneous failed launch of the 2019 full-length Duo Duo (which resulted in legal intervention that forced the dissolution of the label involved) and the cancellation of extensive tour dates due to pandemic lockdowns, left the band in a place questioning the longevity of their existence.

Through working on side projects and remixes, Hirsch (aka datadata) found new inspiration in house music, challenging herself to learn to DJ and mix. The cathartic experience of the club offered an alternative to what seemed like the decaying local indie rock scene. “So much of the infrastructure that we had been a part of over the past years was no longer there,” says Hiller. What remained “no longer felt like us,” Hirsch reflects. These bittersweet, yet honest realizations pushed Operator Music Band to craft four dancefloor-ready tracks, each accompanied by a remix from a respected producer or DJ from the club scene: Doctor Jeep, D.D. Curry, Toribio, and Gabe Gurnsey (of Factory Floor).

Commenting on Four Singles as a whole, Hirsch offered: “For me, this collection of songs is about discovering music as play. There was a very long time in this band where so much of what we were doing felt like work. Satisfying and worthwhile, but ultimately work. Now, we feel like we have so much more room – feeling free to create and play without a specific goal. We can do things on our own terms.”

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Cody at Terrorbird Media.]

Top 25 albums of 2023: #’s 20 – 16

Here we are at the top 20 albums I heard in 2023. There’s some fun stuff here for you.

#20: Worg – Il Piano di Medea EP

This is a techno EP based on the mythological tale of Jason and the Golden Fleece. I don’t know what else to write to make you keen on hearing it than that.

#19: Noëtik – Parhelion EP

Speaking of good EDM, this EP from Noëtik is solid. You could drop any of these tracks into a DJ set and your audience will think you’re a genius.

#18: The Serfs – Half Eaten By Dogs

Weird and wild post-punk from Cincinnati. It moves back and forth between cold wave, post-punk, krautrock, and other stuff that’s hard to define.

#17: Motörhead – Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival ’07

This unearthed, previously unreleased live recording of Motörhead destroying a jazz festival is nothing short of outstanding. They were firing on all cylinders during this tour. Count yourself lucky if you saw them in 2007. If, like me, you never got to see them live, this gets you close.

#16: Rich Aucoin – Synthetic – A Synth Odyssey: Season 2

Rich Aucoin has a cool gig. He gets to collect and play with vintage synthesizers, arpeggiators, sequencers, and organs and make albums with them. This second volume of such music sounds like it was recorded yesterday with new gear. It’s full of dance tracks, ambient cuts, trance beats, disco riffs, and more.

Who makes the top 15? Stay tuned!

Keep your mind open.

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WSND DJ set list – Mystery Monday – January 01, 2024

Thanks to all who listened to the first “Mystery Monday” show of 2024 on WSND. It was three hours of electronic dance music to kick off the new year. Here’s the set list:

  1. Bob Sinclar – Champs Elysees Theme
  2. Fatboy Slim – Acid 8000
  3. Fatboy Slim – Kalifornia
  4. Justice – Genesis (requested)
  5. Junior Jack – Stupidisco
  6. Darude – Feel the Beat (requested)
  7. Jacques Greene – On Your Side
  8. Alex Stealthy – Once (Sunseeker remix)
  9. L.A. Style – James Brown Is Dead (requested)
  10. David Starfire – Juuteeya
  11. Cheb I Sabbah – Alkher Illa Doofer (The Nectar remix)
  12. Skrillex – First of the Year (requested)
  13. Bob Sinclar – I Feel for You
  14. D: Fuse & Hiratka – Don’t Stop
  15. DJ Swamp – Disintegrator
  16. Gimenö – Ports (Edgar De Ramon remix)
  17. Gimenö – (Hd Substance remix)
  18. George T – Dub Letter
  19. The Crystal Method – Dubalicious Demo Groove
  20. The Crystal Method – Vapor Trail
  21. Disco Lines – Techno & Tequila
  22. Dastrix – Dude in the Moon (Luna mix)
  23. Damien N-Drix – Pump It Up
  24. Namdam feat. Lloyd Da Kleena – Fruits
  25. Cevin Fisher – Music Saved My Life
  26. Fluke – Another Kind of Blues
  27. X Press 2 – Musik Express
  28. BadboE – My Bad
  29. Hannah Wants & Chris Lorenzo – Rhymes
  30. Cassius – 1999
  31. Jedi Knights – Catch the Break
  32. Apollo 440 – Smoke & Mirrors
  33. The Golden Boy – Blah Blah Shake
  34. Faithless – Postcards

The next Mystery Monday will be January 08th at 7pm Eastern!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Big Miz – Where I Belong EP

Hailing from Glasgow, Big Miz put in the work behind the decks at at local clubs to build not only his skills but a thriving EDM community there. His first EP for the HOMAGE label, Where I Belong, is a good introduction to his music.

The title track gets it off to a great start with shining beats and bass hits that make you move whether you want to or not. “Everything’s Fine” uses vocal samples to neat effects, and “The Feeling” is a song about getting back to the dance floors and the clubs after we all had to dance in our living rooms during the pandemic (“We gotta bring back that feeling. Yeah, you know the one I’m talking about. That feeling that’s been gone…for way too long.”). Its slick beats will make you want to rush out to the nearest club.

The EP ends with a nice remix of the title track by LUXE that brings up the lush but doesn’t skim on the thumps.

It’s a sharp EP, and every track is solid. Don’t skip it.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Harbour Music Society.]

Review: LSS – Hydrospatial EP

Five straight bangers.

That might be the easiest way to describe LSS‘ new EP, Hydrospatial. The duo of Edward Richards and JXTPS lay down hard-driving techno beats with touches of punk and garage rock here and there, resulting in a quintet of tracks that would easily glide into any DJ’s set and will find a permanent home on your new workout playlist.

“TNK” is straight from a rave aboard Deep Space 9’s holodeck rave with its futuristic, pulsing synths. “Fractual” pans and hums like a swarm of bees drifting above a party at a beachfront, but with more moonlight than sunlight. “Axion” has definite krautrock influences with its repetitive, almost hypnotizing beats.

The high-hat on “Factory” reminds you of a hissing steam engine (and there are steam-like synth hisses throughout it), while the bass is so bottom heavy it feels like it could break through your floor. The title track hums, bumps, throbs, and gristles in all the right spots, causing visions of floating in space, dancing with a bunch of fun, sweaty people in a small club, and running from monsters all at the same time.

Again, five straight bangers.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Harbour Music Society.]

Review: Gimenö – Movement Remixes

Chock-full of floor-filling beats and sexy grooves, Movement Remixes is a collection of eight tracks by Gimenö done by DJ and producer pals of his. It’s difficult to choose a favorite because they’re all good.

Vøsne‘s dub remix of “@cid” builds like the effects of something you took earlier but aren’t sure if it’s working. It is. It builds into a thumping, bumping, humping dance track. Vøsne also has a “regular” remix of the same track later on the EP that’s sexy and menacing at the same time. Reeko remixes “It’s my break” into something you’ll want to crank during your lunch break in the storeroom so you can drown out those Black Friday customers and your boss’ ridiculous demands…and then play the song for your boss so he / she / they can forget their stress for a little while.

The Hd Substance remix of “DT001” percolates for a bit to let you know you’re about to receive a hot, energizing brew. Avox25‘s remix of “Old Trib” buzzes and crackles with industrial touches and racing heartbeat rhythms. Jorge Ciccioli turns “Movement” into something you might hear at a haunted attraction next year. Klint‘s remix of “Day One” is something you might hear at an underground club that features both dancing and bare-knuckle boxing.

Edgar De Ramon piles on the electro-cymbals and hi-hats on his remix of “Ports.” The last cut is, appropriately, RE-ST‘s remix of “Finale.” It doesn’t send you out on a mellow note, however. It keeps you dancing, reminding you of the energy this record’s given you, and tempting you to just play the thing on a loop for an hour or more.

There isn’t a bad mix on here. Don’t miss it.

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[Thanks to Pull Proxy PR!]