Bureau B
Track: SORBET feat. Maija Sofia – ‘I Heard His Scythe’: Irish producer conceives of the purgatory we’re in on ambitious new project
NEED a palate freshener? SORBET is the new guising and musical project of Irish producer Chris W Ryan, who can enumerate on his CV the scouring rock of Just Mustard; the dreamier, almost House of Love stylings of NewDad, and the Fugazi-meets-jazz melding of his own Robocobra Quartet. Chris is clearly a man of eclectic …
Album review: Mapstation – ‘My Frequencies, When We’: playful, immensely thoughtful tronica
My Frequencies, When We may not flaunt its wares with garish insouciance; but like so many of the albums that end up welded to your turntable, it keeps on enticing you back for more exploration, further interaction. It occasionally raises a grin and equally occasionally, an eyebrow; it’s varied in its approach yet thoroughly cohesive. It’s an immensely thoughtful record
ALBUM REVIEW: CAMERA – ‘Prosthuman’: the current Berlin motorik
SO, LET’S talk krautrock. In many ways, it’s all about the rhythm, isn’t it? Think Can; think Jaki Liebezeit, that perfect control, poise, underpinning. Motorik, propulsion, but also tremendous fills and patterning. Metronomic, relentless, the beating heart of the record. Berlin’s CAMERA have that. They have their own Jaki in the shape of the excellently …
ALBUM REVIEW: Richard von der Schulenberg – ‘Moods And Dances’: a fun, exotique library music trip
Moods And Dances is the sort of album you cheekily slip onto the deck at a very groovy soiree at about, ooh, midnight, to bring some bizarre and spacey dimensions to proceedings and during which at least two of your friends turn to you and say with a bewildered grin: “Wow, what is this?”
SEE: CAMERA announce their February album with the feedback motorik of ‘Kartoffelstampf’
NOW ENTERING their second decade as a band, Berlin’s CAMERA are pushing, to borrow the phrase of Ken Kesey, furthur; deeper. They’re poised to release their fifth studio set, Prosthuman, on Bureau B in February; a news bulletin they’re firing at you point-blank with the first single drop and accompanying video, “Kartoffelstampf”, which you can …
SORBET – Life Variations EP
SORBET is the new project from drummer and producer Chris W Ryan; his debut EP under the SORBET name, Life Variations, is a navigation through the key stages of life over three tracks in a suite of more than 20 minutes. Ryan states that the three tracks are borne from the same musical seed: “Every …
Album: Schlammpeitziger – Ein Weltleck in der Echokammer
Manifesting as the 10th record of multi-faceted illustrator, musician and performance artist Schlammpeitziger, following 2018’s Damenbartblick auf Pregnant Hill (Bureau B), this new album is as elusively innovative as his 1992 beginnings. Jo Zimmerman, the figure behind Schlammpeitziger, gained great renown in making impeccably sophisticated, serene lo-fi krautronica. This burgeoning influence upon music and culture …
Album Review: Tolouse Low Trax – ‘Jumping Dead Leafs’
TOLOUSE Low Trax is the recording pseudonym of German composer Detlef Weinrich, and this is his fourth album under that name. The eight-track album is a 38-minute smorgasbord of all manner of musical genres, ranging from krautrock to 80s’ electronica, with pinches of avant-garde, post-rock and ambience whisked into the buffet. The album starts as …
ALBUM REVIEW: Conrad Schnitzler – ‘Con’: Tangerine Dream man’s ’78 LP gets first UK issue
Tangerine Dream founder’s 1978 LP of synthy motorik receives its first UK issue: spacious, eerie and polyrhythmic by turns
ALBUM REVIEW: Gunther Wüsthoff – ‘[to|dig]ital’: deep tronica from the Faust man’s vault
BUREAU B is one of those beautifully interesting labels – nein, curators – out there on the fringes, lovingly delving in the depths of the crates, remastering and compiling, making sure an absolute plethora of lost music is brought back to our ears. It’s main archival thrust is to dig beyond the major catalogue of …