Medusa reviewed by Frans de Waard

Dead Janitor - Medusa - LP black

… partly crazy dance music

Braňo Findrik is the man behind Dead Janitor and so far he has released his music through digital channels. ‘Medusa’ is his first LP and my introduction into his sound world. Dead Janitor is a man of electronic music, taking his inspiration from Aphex Twin and Autechre. I am no fan of Autechre, I must admit. Their music leaves me entirely cold. Lots of software treatments over some stutter beats. It is something I hear also in the music of Dead Janitor. There are several rhythms at work in the same place, and on top of that, there is a whole range of digital and analogue sounds that come along. It is not always without melody, which is nice. Sometimes the music very much fucked up, in neck breaking speed (in ‘Mandatory’ for instance); for me, things worked best if it all a bit more spaced out, such as in ‘Mass’.

Dead Janitor - Medusa
Medusa LP by Dead Janitor

Maybe I just can handle sonic overload that easily? Especially when it has so many different rhythms at the same time. Tracks are kept concise and to the point, often exploring a few things but not overstepping it, with the sudden introduction of new elements. I enjoyed most of this; especially, as said, when he keeps things a lot simpler. I am not sure what he wants with this music. It doesn’t seem to be aiming at the dance floor, but perhaps it does? Maybe this is partly listening to music and partly crazy dance music. It is not entirely my cup of tea, yet I feel it is all made with some great passion for odd time signatures and complex sound structures, of course, topped with fine production quality.

Review by Frans de Waard for VitalWeekly issue 1185

Dead Janitor - Medusa | [ / ] no. 45

Dead Janitor – Medusa | [ / ] no. 45

Dead Janitor – Medusa

You can order your vinyl now! Vinyl edition is limited to 111 pcs. on black vinyl. All vinyls contains download code.

 

20.00€ exc. 23% VAT
Shop now

Medusa release party

urbsounds_party_Medusa

Next Urbsounds label night will happen at 7th of May 2019 at club Fuga/Bratislava. At this time party will host various artist from our local scene. Party will celebrate new release Medusa by Dead Janitor.

urbsounds_party_Medusa

Vritti

Improvised electronic music project from Bratislava, consisting of Peter Kerekes and Slavo Krekovic. Vritti are transformations of the contents of consciousness. Analog vs. digital, East meets West, mystical & symbolic, energetic and complex rhythms, fluid emotions, dark drones and sudden mental ruptures.
https://www.facebook.com/vrittimusic/
https://vimeo.com/201574479

Vrtačky po desáté hodině

deratising your eardums with a digital mud of soundscapes, leaking thru holes drilled during idylic weekend evening, as good neighborhood relations dictate, with a hammer drill.
https://youtu.be/Db0Zcpm0ejI

Dead Janitor

Dead Janitor - Medusa - web

An Chaosdroid

The world of sound is full of wonder and chaosdroid is but an explorer lost in marvelling. Diving through layers of sound, chasing particles and strings fleeting like soap bubbles, she tries to pull together sounds in a complex web that will envelop her and her audience in a temporary cocoon, a fragile unity of feeling and understanding. This time she will try to sound for you “music for dying species and resurrecting planets”.

Makkatu

Techno that echoes experimental powers, movement through beats, detailed listening, clustered sonic structures.

Urbanfailure

Abstract ultra micro sounds and discrete rhythm textures sonic puzzle that’s the liveact Urbanfailure. rhythmic noise or lo fi techno thrash is the best description of the sound that’s coming out of his hardware. Cold and hypnotising disco that will suck you in. Hi will play his recent work from Radical Rest LP. Urbanfailure is member of Slovakian Urbsounds Collective and Vermin party crew.

Stx

From highest highs to rumbling lows, stx is usually mixing sets from the freshest music releases on whatever theme currently interests him. This event will catch a wave of super fast bouncy 160+ jungle, techno a and everything in between.

vj Wosa

Facebook event

Urbanfailure will play live at Sharpe Festival

Urbanfailure live

Sharpe Festival web

Urbanfailure - Radical Rest | [ / ] no. 42 (Red vinyl)

Urbanfailure – Radical Rest | [ / ] no. 42 (Red vinyl)

Urbanfailure – Radical Rest LP

limited edition of 292 transparent red vinyl LP.

Digital download code is included.

15.00€ exc. 23% VAT
Shop now
Urbanfailure - Synthesis of Error - T-shirt

Urbanfailure – Synthesis of Error – T-shirt

Urbanfailure – Synthesis of Error T-Shirt

T-Shirt related to the Radical Rest album. Available in various colors and sizes.

You will receive your T-shirt and download card from the Radical Rest album.

100% Cotton. Gildan Premium Quality.

12.00€ exc. 23% VAT
Shop now

Dead Janitor – Medusa | [ / ] no. 45 – O R D e R ! N o W !

Dead Janitor - Medusa LP front

The new album Medusa by Dead Janitor is released now. Release date 8th of May 2019.

Order now!

You can order your vinyl or download now! Vinyl edition is limited to 111 pcs. on black vinyl. All vinyls contains download code.

Dead Janitor - Medusa - web

Dead Janitor

is the alter-ego for Slovak electronic technician Braňo Findrik. Over the past decade, he has steadily produced a series of digital releases leading to his debut Medusa LP for Urbsounds. With an arsenal of pixelated breakbeats and stuttering samples, Dead Janitor presents an adventurous form of polymetric electronica, echoing the complex IDM explorations of the pioneering work of Aphex Twin and Autechre.

Dead Janitor - Medusa - LP black

Medusa

is an apt title for the album that hybridizes digital and analogue technologies into a labyrinthine architecture of sound that prioritizes rhythm over melody. The title was inspired by the beloved camp of Clash Of The Titans but also alludes to the hostility that have become normalized in contemporary politics and culture. Here, Dead Janitor turns samples upside down, subjects the internal clocks to breakneck multiplication and division, atomsmashes electronic sound into it granular parts, and otherwise sets up rhythm to be in conflict with itself.

Dead Janitor - Medusa LP front

Tracks

such as “Mandatory” that cycle through its 8-bit density of Gameboy bleeps and the title track with its aggressive industrial clamor provide a number of complicated listening experiences that reveal hidden patterns and rhythmic undercurrents over repeated listens.

With its emphasis on displacement and dislocation, Medusa makes for a thrilling if idiosyncratic album in the lineage of Evol, Mark Fell, Russell Haswell, and late-period Autechre.

Dead Janitor - Medusa - LP black

Credits

All tracks composed, performed and produced by Dead Janitor
Mixed by Dead Janitor
Mastered by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam in Berlin
Artwork by Dead Janitor

MeiZhiyong Dave Phillips LP review by Eskaton

MeiZhiyong Dave Phillips story of friendship

MeiZhiyong Dave Phillips LP grew out of a European tour

This album grew out of a European tour that Dave Phillips put together for Mei Zhiyong in reciprocation for a Chinese tour that Mei Zhiyong had helped orchestrate for Dave Phillips. Despite not speaking each other’s language, they decided to work together through music. I was unfamiliar with either artist, and had only just reviewed Jamka’s minimalist techno album on the same label, so I had no idea what I was in for. Thankfully, I really enjoy harsh noise, because that is what blasted out of my speakers when I dropped the needle on this record. Looking at Dave Phillips’ discography this makes sense, as he has worked with such luminaries as Masonna and Mei Zhiyong has worked with such artists as Macronympha (but sounding like neither of those two).

MeiZhiyong Dave Phillips LP review by Eskaton
Mei Zhiyong and Dave Phillips

This is my kind of noise – everything including the kitchen sink gets sampled and then thrown into the mix. This is not a complete wall of sound though. They manage to break it up with less aggressive passages before turning around and unloading with both barrels again. The other side is a bit more cut-up noise, but still interesting. Overall, to picture this, imagine the aggressiveness of your favorite harsh noise artist combined with the attention to detail of, say, Hafler Trio. This album is limited to 300 copies, so if this sounds up your alley, you’ll want to pick this up while you can.

Review written by Eskaton for Chain D.L. K.

Jamka – Inter Alia reviewed

Jamka - Inter Alia

I was unfamiliar with this London-based duo of Monika Subrtova and Daniel Kordik, but the label calls this album “the latest evidence of their patient, intimate relationship with their analogue machines. From the start there’s a sense of event – we encounter clear, interlaced electronic textures, powerful analogue drones and well-placed beats.” From the opening track, you get the sense that this is not your typical dancy techno. There is a beat, and the music is quite well put together, but this is not music for the club. At least not any club that you want to be at after dark. There is a feeling of unease underlying these tracks that goes against the technological optimism of a lot of electronic music. “Anazmo,” for example, has a kind of minimalism that makes the repetitive beat seem oppressive (and I mean this in a good way) rather than something that gets you onto the dance floor. For the most part, this is instrumental, with the exception of “Eskulap,” which has some distorted, unintelligible vocals. If you like your techno with the bleakness and darkness of old Front 242, with a touch of minimalism thrown in for good measure, this is worth picking up. Pressed on white vinyl.

Reviewed by Eskaton, for Chain D.L.K. Original review.

Makarov/Belorukov.Kostyrko reviewed

Makarov​/​Belorukov​.​Kostyrko | [ / ] no. 44

Frans de Waard reviewed Makarov/Belorukov.Kostyrko split tape

On this split cassette, we find three Russian musicians, two of them working together. On side A we have Oleg Makarov with two pieces. He uses DIY synthesizers, sound objects and a laptop with Max/MSP. I had not heard of him before. His improvisations, however, are at the extreme end of modular synthesizers. No careful exploration of sounds, but crude blocks of sounds, raw oscillations and a noisy treatment of field recordings. His ‘Track 2’ is more delicate in approach than ‘Track 1’, with metallic sounds being manipulated and motors being started. It’s good without being great.

Split tape by Makarov​/​Belorukov​.​Kostyrko
Split tape by Makarov​/​Belorukov​.​Kostyrko

On the other side, we find one long piece by Ilia Belorukov (modular synthesizer) and Sergey Kostyrko (on ‘modular’ says the cover; don’t know what the difference is). I know Belorukov from his mostly more careful approaches to the flute and laptop processing thereof, and Kostyrko for a more rough end approach to improvisation as shown on his Spina Records cassette label. I would think duties are divided here, left and right channel, one for each player, which means that the listener has the option to do a little DIY mixing (I always wonder who actually does). If Makarov was rough than this duo does noise; it’s vicious and it’s loud, without being just a silly wall of noise – well most of the times that is. Both sides are exactly what the medium of the cassette is for; the quick documentation of a single action that one wants to hear for some time and then most likely forgets about. Also, this side was good but not great. So it goes.

Frans de Waard reviewed Makarov/Belorukov.Kostyrko split tape for VitalWeekly no 1170

Makarov​/​Belorukov​.​Kostyrko | [ / ] no. 44

Makarov​/​Belorukov​.​Kostyrko | [ / ] no. 44

This split tape by Makarov​/​Belorukov​.​Kostyrko

is prepared by eleсtronic musicians Makarov​/​Belorukov​.​Kostyrko from Russia who works in the field of improvised music. One can find two different approaches here, free improvisation on modular synthesizers from Ilia Belorukov and Sergey Kostyrko who present the St. Petersburg music scene, and prepared improvisation based on designed software and diy electronics from Oleg Makarov who presents Moscow scene.

Digital download card is included, you will receive split tape and digital download.

8.00€ exc. 23% VAT
Shop now

Experimental Techno `n` Gabber

Urbanfailure - Radical Rest LP

Radical Rest and GALVANIzed reviewed by Vittore Baroni for Blow Up

The Slovak Urbsounds deals with extreme rhythmic scenarios, such as those of its manager Michal Lichy, in circulation since 1996 with the Urban Failure project and a spiky electronics, which starts from labyrinthine sequences and hc techno patterns, deconstructed in paintings that tend to informal and to a noise away from industrial clichés. Also in the new album we are witnessing a cold and hypnotic “mechanical ballet” that evokes artificial intelligences, future dystopian and collapsing cybernetic societies, with acoustic constructions wisely intricate and also quite elegant, as well as sometimes darkly vigorous.

Urbanfailure - Radical Rest
Urbanfailure – Radical Rest

The edition is in bright red vinyl, in contrast to the “green frog” of the 10 “set up by DJ Balli in league with Amphibian.This is, as usual, a solid and pressing breakbeat in ironical conceptual key.

Dj Balli + Amphibian - GALVANIzed
Dj Balli + Amphibian – GALVANIzed

Well-known experiments on electricity carried out in the eighteenth century by Luigi Galvani on dissected batraches Balli takes revenge on the scientist with a sequence of metaphorical “kicks in the ass” in the form of neurotic rhythmic assaults hc gabber, dressed with croaking treaties of frogs and mocking commentaries melodici of synthetic keyboards. (7/8) Vittore Baroni

Experimental Techno `n` Gabber
Radical Rest in Blow Up
Urbanfailure - Radical Rest | [ / ] no. 42 (Red vinyl)

Urbanfailure – Radical Rest | [ / ] no. 42 (Red vinyl)

Urbanfailure – Radical Rest LP

limited edition of 292 transparent red vinyl LP.

Digital download code is included.

15.00€ exc. 23% VAT
Shop now

Buy in our shop

Experimental Techno n Gabber ~ Original Italian version

La slovacca Urbsounds si occupa di scenari ritmici estremi, come quelli del suo gestore Michal Lichy, in circolazione dal 1996 col progetto Urban Failure e un’elettronica spigolosa, che parte da labirintiche sequenze e pattern hc techno, destrutturati in quadri tendenti all’informale e ad un rumorismo distante dai cliché industrial. Anche nel nuovo album si assiste ad un freddo e ipnotico “balletto meccanico” che evoca intelligenze artificiali, futuri distopici e società cibernetiche al collasso, con costruzioni acustiche sapientemente intricate e anche alquanto eleganti, oltre che a tratti tetramente vigorose. L’edizione è in vinile rosso vivo, in contrasto col “verde rana” del 10″ allestito da DJ Balli in combutta con Amphibian. Trattasi, come di consueto, di solido e incalzante breakbeat in ironica chiave concettuale. Tema del lavoro sono stavolta i noti esperimenti sull’elettricità condotti nel Settecento da Luigi Galvani su batraci dissezionati. Balli si prende la rivincita sullo scienziato con una sequela di metaforici “calci nel sedere” in forma di nevrotiche aggressioni ritmiche hc gabber, condite con gracidii trattati di rane e beffardi commentini melodici di tastiere sintetiche. (7/8) Vittore Baroni

Dj Balli + Amphibian – GALVANIzed | [ / ] no.43

Dj Balli + Amphibian – GALVANIzed | [ / ] no.43

Dj Balli + Amphibian – GALVANIzed

this is very special limited edition of 48pcs 12″ on solid green vinyl or the transparent green 10″ limited edition of 250. Both vinyl editions includes download code of digital version of this release. Download includes 5 bonus tracks.

Price range: 12.00€ through 30.00€ exc. 23% VAT
Shop now