Gas is one of the Kompakt label head’s most fondly remembered aliases: Voigt used the guise during the late ’90s, producing a series of ambient techno albums on Mille Plateaux (which were recently re-released as a retrospective anthology by Kompakt).
The last time that he performed his Gas live set was seven years ago. He is booked in to perform at Jazzhouse in Copehagen (on April 8, 2017) and at Austria’s donaufestival, which will be taking place April 28 – May 1, 2017.
The Selectors (which was launched by Taimur Agha and wife Gina Marie Agha earlier this year) is teaming up with Brooklyn nightclub House of Yes to bring the DJs to New York this weekend. Richards, a longstanding resident at London’s fabric, and Berlin-based digger Lutz will perform alongside Agha and Cry Baby. The event has been billed as standing in solidarity with the #savefabric campaign.
The event will take place at House of Yes on November 25. For more information, head to the Facebook page.
Ahead of the gig, we spoke to the fabric resident as well as Taimur Agha. First up, Craig Richards:
What are your sentiments about the recent fabric closure? My sentiments are those of sadness, denial, anger, disbelief, heartbreak, denial, sadness, disbelief, anger. Round and round and round until the court case begins and we have a chance to overturn the ridiculous and shortsighted decision to close an institution which is nearer in fact to Tate Modern than a carelessly run drug den as the Police. We are very proud of what has been achieved for the development of modern electronic music across genre. We have belief that it will reopen. The longest Period that I haven’t played at the club is two weeks in the seventeen years of its opening.
How has the support been from the larger dance music community Incredible, absolutely incredible SUPPORT. I finally I understand the power of social media. Not only has the love been overwhelming but the resistance is very strong. Our strength is in numbers. Everyone in the world who values the experience of listening to dance music in a night club environment is part of this story. Everyone who values nightlife, some people don’t sleep at night and like to go out and dance. These are the people who are affected by our story.
Do you get sentimental about playing in NYC? Do you especially enjoy it? Why? New York is a wonderful city. I have been visiting since the early eighties. When I first started coming over it was edgy and run down but super exciting. We were always in Manhattan, usually downtown. I have always had friends who lived here so they usually take me wherever is good. Then that was Paradise Garage or Save the Robots, now it’s Taimur’s party. New York’s underground scene is always on the move. The same warehouse parties that were in Soho and the Meat Packing District are now in Bushwick…. Economics and creativity keep us on the move. I’m really excited about playing with Nicolas. Who is an amazing DJ and not only that he plays records….
We then also spoke to Taimur Agha:
How long have you been booking Craig to play in NYC? I met Craig for the very first time in Denver through Crazy Larry in 2006. Larry booked us to play together at a club on Halloween weekend. Fast forward to 2007 in NYC… a group of friends collaborated in secret, bringing Craig Richards to an after-party in NYC after a show he played in April. We have kept in touch since and connect right away. That particular event… Craig was brought to the doors of Bar13, early morning after endless texts and follow ups, to provide New York with a special seven-hour after-hours set that no one expected he would do. That set was one of the most talked about that year and many mentioned that it was one of the best parties they had been to in NY for quite some time. I had been a big fan of Craig Richards since the Tyrant days. Him and Lee Burridge were crossing trippy sounds between dub, tech-house, west coast house and breakbeat all in one. No one was doing that at the time.
We share a mutual respect for one another and have become close friends. Craig at one point was our international resident at Blkmarket Membership. He’s played for me on numerous occasions since 2007.
What is it about Craig’s music programming and DJing that makes him one of your favorites? I’ve learned a lot from him, from music and labels I’d never heard off, to finding artists who I haven’t given a chance to listen to and in learning how to become a versatile DJ. What he does at fabric with the Saturday night bookings is incredible and solid. It’s definitely had an impact in Blkmarket in terms of programming over the years.
When Craig plays, he always pulls out these records that surprise you. His track programming and selection is one of the best. He is one of the Masters.
Why is The Selectors such a personal and important event series for you to curate? The Selector’s Series is about taking things back to the basics, focusing itself on those artists and DJs whose work forms the foundations of the scene. It’s a new project that I am working on with my wife Gina Marie Agha. More intimate events, with extended sets.
Galdoors co-founder Neil McDermott (a.k.a. Junes) is next up on Wicked Bass—the Kiev-based imprint that has put out music by the likes of Huerco S, Healing Force Project and Innershades. Three-tracker Of No Memory is not just his debut on the Ukranian label, but the first time that the Berlin-based producer has released outside of his own imprint.
For more information about Junes, check out our recent Bubblin’ Up feature (which includes a mix from the man himself).
Of No Memory is expected to drop in late December. Pre-order it at Juno or Deejay.de and stream snippets below.
In light of its license being reinstated, fabric has released another transparency statement.
News broke earlier this week that the London club would be reopening, following lengthy negotiations with the local council. In light of those events, Gary Kilbey (managing director of the venue), has issued another transparency statement.
The #savefabric campaign, which has raised over £328,000 in donations, will wrap up today—Wednesday November 22, at 17:00GMT. It is forecast that there will be money left over and that “residual funds will be used to help other worthy causes within the industry, including Philip Kolvin QC’s pursuance of licencing reform which he is currently championing.”
fabric is also submitting representations to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Licensing Act 2003, on the question of difficulties faced by licensed premises. The intention is to protect other clubs and venues from sharing a similar fate, so they can avoid expensive legal fees should cases be brought against them. You can read fabric’s submissions here.
Kilbey then signed off with the following message on behalf of fabric: “We are now looking forward to the future and being able to open up our club again. We’re fixed on that moment that we turn the sound system back on and reunite the fabric family in our disco to engage in enjoying the world class music of our residents and family of artists. This is what it has always been about – being able to share in these experiences, together. We hope to see you back in EC1 very soon.”
Those who have donated should keep an eye on their emails, as they will be receiving an invitation to be part of a piece of artwork that will be installed in the club.
Australian apparel label, podcast series, and events company Let The People Dance and I-Manifest, an NGO that uses creativity to empower youth to find their passion and live their purpose, are aiming to bring musical resources to underprivileged and marginalized youth at the upcoming Electronic Music Conference Australia.
The initiative is currently in its final stages of raising money to put 50 students through a workshop that will teach them about creativity and its real-world applications in regards to careers. The workshop will include hands-on tutorials for music production—house, techno, and hip-hop will be a focus—film, design, branding, and promotion.
You can check out more on the initiative and donate to the cause here, with a video on the value of the cause streaming below.
Never Ready Records’ inaugural release saw Venetian experimentalist Munstac join the label with the three-track Sound of Palladio EP—released on November 11.
Andrea Comparin (a.k.a. Munstac) developed an early fascination with music starting with the drums, which he would spend a number of years studying while playing out as a member of several rock and jazz bands. Around the age of 16, electronic music became his obsession, beginning with Deeohdee, a collaboration with Jonathan Hamilton.
Comparin has continued his electronic productions while studying at the Vicenza Conservatory, where his talent for sound design has been put to use by delivering soundtracks for documentaries, short films and visual displays. Now with Munstac, a solo project, Comparin’s aural experimentation and sound design pedigree meets technoid rhythms and dancefloor basslines with a singular mission to “get the floor moving.”
Sound of Palladio is the first in a four-part series of limited 12″s pressed to 180g coloured vinyl.
Following the release, Munstac and the label have offered up unreleased cut “Suburban Madness” as one of today’s XLR8R free downloads, available now via the WeTransfer button below.
The latest release to drop from Russian label Fuselab will be Itkul Afterglow, a 4-track 12″ by Valery Melekhin (a.k.a. Rad Machine).
Itkul Afterglow will follow Melekhin’s appearance on an Opal Tapes compilation of Russian music, titled USSR, with a set of cuts that run the gamut from deep, reverb-drenched outings to raw machine-driven funk.
The EP will drop digitally, on 12″, and cassette, which will also feature four bonus tracks not on the digital and vinyl releases. The cover art for the release was sourced from an old postcard of Lake Itkul, a highly inspiring travel destination for Melekhin over the years.
Itkul Afterglow will officially drop on December 5 and can be pre-ordered here, with “High Tide” streaming in full via the player above.
Last month, New York artist Rioux dropped his debut full-length album, Fragmenta, on his own Human Pitch imprint.
Across Fragmenta, Rioux searches inward; it’s an album where the multi-disciplinary artist set out to deconstruct his inner-web via 10 introspective and wildly eclectic tracks. And while Rioux looks to ponder himself on Fragmenta, he also invites and encourages the listener to do the same.
Following the album release is a visual single for “At the Moment,” directed by David McLeod. Like the music, David McLeod’s visuals are dazzling, barely-there fragments that sail in and out of frame in a hallucinatory mix.
You can stream the video for “At the Moment” in full via the player below, with Fragmenta available via Rioux’s Bandcamp.
The Astral Body EP features two upbuilding, energetic mesmerising cuts, and marks the end of a fine year for the label—one that has now featured four strong releases.
Tracklisting:
A: Between Dreams B: Brothers
Ahead the EP’s December 2 release, snippets of Astral Body EP are available to stream below.
Marvin & Guy is the DJ/production alias of Italy-born artists Alessandro Parlatore and Marcello Giordani. Inspired by the disco-infused sounds of Ron Hardy, Larry Levan and Tee Scot, the project was born in 2011—though their first release didn’t drop until two summers later.
The bar, however, was set: synth heavy and deeply melodic, 2013’s Estacy four-tracker went a long way to defining the duo’s sonic mould—both in the studio and behind the decks. Further records followed, shared between Correspondant, MM Discos, and their own Marvin & Guy Records—although their blissful 2013 Egoísta EP on John Talabot‘s Hivern Discs is arguably the release for which they deservedly garnered the most widespread acclaim.
As DJs, too, they continue to impress—but for this week’s mix we asked them to step away from the dancefloor and deliver something a little bit more conceptual. Their response to this was simple: “We’re gonna do a mix with only Italian electronic/minimal/wave music from the ’70s and ’80s. We went through our garage all day today and discovered some pretty huge songs/tracks.”
This is what came in.
When and where was the mix recorded? This podcast was recorded on a rainy Monday in our garage, where we have all our collection.
What equipment did you record the mix on? We used very basic stuff, like Technics SL-1200 and a little Mackie mixer, so simple.
Did you have a specific mood/ idea that you wanted to express? You know, when people think about Italy and music, their first thought goes to Italo Disco, but there is a lot more than this. We just wanted to show to the people the high-quality level of music that we had during ’70s/’80s in the electronic music/wave/minimal scene.
How did you select the specific tracks that you wanted to include? We choose these tracks just because they are good. It is a selection of our favorites tunes from that scene (some of them).
The mix is full of electronic/minimal/wave music from the 70s and 80. Was this a nice opportunity to share these records, given it’s not a club environment? As pure DJs, of course, normally we prefer to do our job but it’s good also to do these kind of recordings because we’re talking and doing dance music every day so this is like a very little break from it. It’s also very inspiring in terms of producing electronic music.
2016 has been a quiet year for you on a production front, with just one EP. Can we expect more releases next year? Yes, we like that way. We prefer to not release so much every year. We think that if you release a lot of records during the year the people can’t really feel the vibe for each release. We all need a lot of time to understand and appreciate a record in a very good way, and that’s basically why we decided to not put out a lot of our music.
What else have you got coming up? 2017 will be a very nice year for Marvin & Guy. First of all, we have a record on Permanent Vacation called FIRE! FIRE! coming out early next year, then we have an interesting and more “back to the roots” project called EQUATION with a lot of huge and so good DJs involved, not just Marvin & Guy. It will be three different releases simply called vol. 1, vol. 2;vol. 3, and each release has four special weapons/edits from other DJs. Volume 1 will be out in January and the others will follow every two/three months.
Then we’re gonna get back on Hivern Discs—after long time—but that will be later next year. Also a lot of remixes. So, yes, next year will be pretty fun and interesting!
Tracklisting:
01. A.T.R.O.X. “New York Race Track” (Trinciato Forte Rec. – Italy) 02. A.T.R.O.X. “The Nights Remain” (Trinciato Forte Rec. – Italy) 03. Gaznevada “When The Music Is Over” (Italian Rec. – Italy) 04. The Colla “Mucca” (CGD – Italy) 05. Unknown 06. Art Fleury “Lilith” (No sense Rec. – Italy) 07. Doris Norton “Raptus” (Durium – Italy) 08. Metal Vox “Future World” (Italian Rec. – Italy) 09. Fausto “Orange” (FG Rec. – Italy) 10. Lino Capra Vaccina “Voce In Xy” (NÖ Rec. – Italy) 11. Actors Studio “Dancing Alone” (Unreleased – Italy) 12. DsorDNE “Orgasme III” (Impulse Rec.- Cassette – Italy) 13. Krisma “Nothing To Do With The Dog” (Franton Rec. – Italy) 14. Marcello Giombini “Disco 3” (Forever Rec. – Italy) 15. Gianni Safred & His Electronic Instruments “Unexplored World” (Music Scene – Italy)
