Some Proper Dark Shit for your evenings spent trawling the web to satisfy your really inadequate social lives, including mine.

- Keeping Away from Fires and Flames
- Scene Couple
- Hunting Lodge
- Diagnostic Imaging
- OOOVVVDDDDD
- Wist 365
- Dun Dun
- Roki
- Trouble
- My Head is Slowly Exploding
- A Room Full of Fuck All
- Freak (Dub)
- Ridge
- Untitled 2
- Bloom (Blawan RMX)
- Wack [Variation 1]
- Yass Waddahh (Covered in Sand Reinterpretation)
- Memo1

Another day, another anonymous Techno producers graces our shores as self proclaimed S&M fetishist A Vision of Love debuts in style on Avian Records.

Next level DJ Tool techno is the name of the game, with two sound system rollers gracing this gritty slab of blackened wax. Side A - Hate 2/6 is a nasty syncopated banger with deep, pounding drums and a various bleepage and the likes throughout. Very hypnotic stuff, and definitely one for the heads and smart DJ’s alike.

Next up is the heavy, monotonous Black and Blue (For You) which again relies on these very deep bass soundsystem required drums that the Avian Camp specializes in. Very little in means of progression, a tool it is destined for and can smash those head banging dancers among us in brutal fashion. As Boomkat expertly put it ‘One for the dancers, industrial romancers’

Modern Love, Manchester Based Experimental Haven, has a particular grey aesthetic. From the LP Covers to it’s waxed grooves, a common thread can be linked throughout it’s modern catalogue. Miles, one half of Occult and Champions of All the things that go BANG in the night A.K.A. Dark Ambient duo Demdike Stare, is one such artist on the label roster that specializes in this aspect of electronic music. His excellent LP Faint Hearted came first and now this, an addendum of sorts: Unsecured. 30 minutes of pure analog and noisy beauty. 

Slow, sludgy and just downright loud; Miles take on modern day House/Techno is idiosyncratic to say the least. Lo-Fi and Noisy, it somehow comes across as beautifully constructed home listening joints. A common 4/4 pulse is found here in all 4 of the tracks here, but his layering of ambient atmospheres on top of that racket he calls drums is incredible to say the least. A perfect balance and knowledge of all sides of underground electronics is shown here. Between this and his LP, this is essential 2013 electronic music and recommended as always.

If anyone has been following my musical journey (I presume none of you have) you might of noticed that I started indulging in cassette tape listening, sourcing an old walkman and trying my best to get used to the lo-fi hiss and distortion of it all. Well you need not look any better use of the medium than in this mini LP of sorts from the ever reliable experimental based label Opal Tapes.

Not much is known (if nothing at all) about the producer behind these tracks, and that works to it’s advantage in some aspects. Without any expectations, this LP does surprise you. Rooted in drone and experimental techno, Coins flirts with the hypnotism of Shoegaze and Ambience, drawing it’s listeners in to his expansive and haze fueled world. Distorted guitars mingle with bleak and lethargic atmospheres while heavy, downtempo kick drums and snares whip and crackle along the tape reel. Stunning stuff as you can imagine.

A daisy among nettles this LP; bringing a new face to the popular and well exercised genre of bleak experimental music. One for the dark heads among us. It is unfortunately sold out but download it sure and feel the digital tape vibez. TIPPED it goes without saying. 

Brilliant mix from the always consistent shady figure of Shifted, I dare you to stand still while listening

castsofeverything:

Suddenly I feel like AN ACTUAL PART in this crazy Boards of Canada game! Just got back from my evening adventure up to Rough Trade! Here’s what went down:

Got there about 22:30 and met a fellow obsessive, we pressed our ears to the glass and listened hard. “_99742” was the consensus. So probs…

The never ending saga continues…

Impenetrable music takes it’s tole on you after a year or so of it, really tweaks your aural senses. Every once in a while though, it’s nice to come back to an old ‘accessible’ pop record as the critics are putting this new LP as. Well kind of. It’s ever so slightly experimental, because simply put no one sounds like James Blake. ‘Dubstep Traitor’ ‘Pussy Producer’ ‘Lame Ass Motherfucker’ are just some of the terms flung around the internet around the time of his first LP came about. I will not go into his peculiar transformation as an artist, as it has been severely over analysed over the past couple years. What we are left with is a solid and even stranger sophomore LP from aul Jimmy.

By stranger, I mean that the LP is the logical progression from his debut. A more R&B / Soul route is his chosen path, where his delicate tenor croon is in full swing. It’s never sounded better, especially over some of the most powerful and emotive synthesizers I have ever experienced. It’s a step up in production cleanliness from the self titled due to his major label signing, and it works to his ultimate advantage here. 

Obvious examples include single Retrograde where a soft piano and 909 tune suddenly erupts into an epic synth ballad where James is screaming ‘I’M HIT!’ much to our aural delight. Life Round Here, Voyeur and Digital Lion are also all immediate highlights. But the full scale of the LP’s beauty is unraveled when you delve deeper into the world that James has carved out for us. A certain mood that he conveys is both forlorn and emotional, yet can still be uplifting and ecstatic, often in the same song.

Not as strange and idiosyncratic as his debut, Overgrown, is more accessible but yet still keeps his stance in undeground electronic dignity intact. One of the only few artists that could. Recommended, obviously. Don’t listen to the backlash. Listen to me. I’ll show you the way.

youdonotrespond:

This is something I had wanted to do for a while but am just now getting around to it… Anyway read on to find the rules and whatnot!

Here’s how you enter: Just like this post or reblog it up to two times, that’s three entries per person. Any more reblogs will simply be ignored.

Here’s what up…

Found some old Devo tape my dad had… Bopping along to this now, top quality stuff

After [Part 1] in the Cold Light series, Shifted returns again to grace his outstanding Avian imprint with two darker and plummeting techno tracks. [Part 1] was morning techno as reflected in the yellow glow of the artwork, where shifted briefly returned back to his early dubbier days and give us a couple heady but dancefloor orientated tunes.

[Part 2] brings us to 1 am, dark and desolate techno. Sektor C, the longest in the series, is a masterclass in both tension and release. A harrowing drone bleeps throughout, constantly crescendoing until the tension is too much. His signature hard as nails drums hammer in the back ground. It hypnotises and delivers. One of the best tracks he has ever produced it goes without saying.

Sektor D on the other hand is rather odd. The drums in this piece are phat and bone crushingly programmed. The sound of a record skipping is heard. A starry eyed synth note floats in and out of consciousness, where scenes of bleak weather and anything else depressing are conjured.

A great end to a brilliant series. And with an LP and more EP’s on the way for Avian and Shifted himself, anticipation couldn’t be higher