Various - Mas Confusion

Various - Mas Confusion (Promo) (Studio !K7, !K7137 PROMO CD, 2002) (320)

This isn't a really a fully promo-only release, it's just the one I have... which isn't super-special or any extra tracks, it's just the one I found in a used-bin for a few bucks, and well, really, it was a no-brainer buy.  I didn't realize fully what I had until I got home... there are some insanely good tracks here.  Let's start from the beginning, that Metamatics track (of which I intend to post pretty much everything Norris ever put out, on this blog) is very strong.  Followed by an absurdly good Lusine-related track, which I should post his cds I have.  I'm sorta new to Stars As Eyes, but now that I'm thinking about it while listening, I need to investigate more.  Xela should be no stranger to you, and if it is... check out "For Frosty Mornings And Summer Nights" or maybe "Tangled Wood", cuz that is the era of this stuff.  If you check out later Xela stuff (which I dig), he has gone a bit darkerish and deeper.  That said, his label (Type) is phenomenal.  Next track, Autophonic.  I'm not familiar with this dude/dudette, but it's an alright track.  Fits the mold, not bad though.  Adam Johnson has a couple tracks here, which are pretty good.  I'd like to post his Merck album here if there is time. It is gold, as shown here.  The mighty Funckarma weigh in with a killer track that could just keep going... it doesn't need to stop...  their sound is so mesmerizing to me, much like early AE.  Quench, which is of course the side-ish of the Funcken boys (Funckarma), among others, puts forward a quality track that fits VERY well with its surroundings.  I'm not familiar with Tomato Weirdo at all, but the track is alright, and glancing at discogs, it doesn't appear the peeps involved did too much for some reason.  Second to the last track is by Michael Fakesch, which is half of Funkstörung, whom I saw at a tiny club in Seattle probably ten or twelve years ago, they were pretty good... I had a fun time.  The track here is more minimal... it might have fit more on that Night Owls 02 comp more.  Dunno, sounds good now.  And it ends with Mr. Projectile, who has a killer Merck comp that I will be posting at some point.  His track here is very good and I really like the vibe he is doing.  Very slightly reminds me of Proem, but that might be because I've been listening to him a bunch today.  Either way, high praise.   Same with this compilation.  Very strong.  It's gonna be in my car for a while.  Sounds so good right now.  You should check it out.

01 Metamatics – Giant Sunflowers Swaying In The Wind
02 Lusine Icl – Risa
03 Stars As Eyes – Black Achievement
04 Xela – Streetlevel
05 Autophonic – Mind The Dot
06 Adam Johnson – Anex
07 Funckarma – Kobalt
08 Adam Johnson – Baquelch
09 Quench – Zane
10 Tomato Weirdo – La Salle De Bain
11 Michael Fakesch – We Got A Generator
12 Mr. Projectile – Less Math More Music

Review (do you need more recommendations than my drivel??? I guess so!) and this is a pretty quality, but brief summation and comparison of, although I sadly have none of the skampler comps... I relate to the sentiment:

I would say that this is as seminal as Skam's 'Skampler' comp. I've gone on to buy records by every single artist on it without exception. In some cases these are the best tracks i've heard by the artists.

This release also got me into several other labels (merck, onrecords, etc).

You really should buy this release if you have any interest in electronic music.

Info here

Various - Night Owls 02

Various - Night Owls 02 (Deluxe Records, DLX013CD, 2002) (320)

01  Soft Pink Truth, The - Adeusz
02  Electric Birds - Nightriders: Greenhouse FX Mix
03  Warmdesk - Guero: Bedside
04  Daniel Gardner - Polokolipt: Friendly Fe-Lion Mix
05  Jetone - Somatonin
06  Electric Birds - Impel
07  Sagan - Who Speaks For Earth?
08  Emisor - Sala De La Lectura
09  Bizz Circuits - Drought
10  Emisor - Mnaomal
11  Bizz Circuits - Dubbing In Gaza
12  Pan•American - Fake Philly Strings

Allmusic review:

Volume two in Deluxe's compilation series Night Owls is different from the first installment. Avoiding ambient electro and dreamy soundscapes, it focuses on rhythm. Danceable but not dance, the music follows light clicks & cuts guidelines with sidesteps into IDM and, yes, a couple of atmospheric tunes. The roster includes label favorites Electric Birds and Bizz Circuits, the latter adding two new tracks to his album The Very Best of Bizz Circuits, released at the same time. Emisor also delivers two cuts: "Sala de la Lectura" has a Latin drum machine thing going, while "Mnaomai" boasts a romantic Fender Rhodes. The other featured artists are all Canadian or American: Warmdesk pulls off a nice number where clicks look like glitters; Soft Pink Truth (aka Matmos' Drew Daniel) opens the set with "Adeusz," a dancefloor-friendly cut, although not as straightforward as the duo's porno soundtracks (see Vague Terrain Recordings' A Viable Alternative to Actual Sexual Contact). Concluding the track list is an honor awarded to Pan American. His "Fake Philly Strings" takes listeners back to the mood of Night Owls 01. Volume two delivers the goods and makes a fine continuous listen, but there is not much here to write home about. 

Various - Night Owls 01

Various - Night Owls 01 (Deluxe Records, DLX011CD, 2001) (320)

01  Esa Ruoho - Molies 1 (24/11/00)
02  Aspic - Mr. Ouik
03  Parts:Places - Untitled No. 8
04  Solid Objects - It Was In Middle Of Lake
05  Eblake - Nachtmusik
06  Solid Objects - It Was In Middle Of Mountain
07  Llips - Out Of Reach (Electric Birds Remix)
08  Dietrich Schoenemann - Interwinds
09  Etherdrag - Subway Trolls
10  Esa Ruoho - Molies 2 (24/11/00)
11  Electric Birds - Autofibre
12  Starfish Pool - Sleepless
13  Chessie - The Firefly

Info:

Deluxe Records presents Night Owls 01 - the first volume in a compilation series of nocturnal mood music; not to fall asleep to, but a nocturne that awakens as it evolves. From lush, vivid dreams to dark hallucinatory nightmares, the Night Owls appear, taking shape in various forms of dark, textural electronic listening music. The first volume features 13 exclusive tracks from: Esa Ruoho (aka Lackluster), Llips, Electric Birds, Starfish Pool, Chessie, Eblake, Dietrich Schoenemann, Aspic, Parts:Places, Solid Objects and Etherdrag.      

The Deluxe label's Night Owls 01 compiles the work of some of abstract techno's relatively unknown quantities in a fashion that entirely befits its name. While it's a bit louder than the output of Taylor Deupree's like-minded 12K label, the contributions to Night Owls 01 are also deafeningly understated. As each track seems to straddle the space between consciousness and unconsciousness, you can imagine the types of sounds present here; heavily treated blips and samples, softly spliced together under the digital scalpel of Pro Tools and the like. Not to say that all are completely made of ones and zeroes. Some choice compositions from Chessie and Llips actually include quite a few acoustic elements. What can be said about all of the songs, though, is that they're sparse and slow, clicks & cuts-type collages that allow themselves plenty of time to develop. In rare cases, some give themselves a little too much time, though. Still, rarely does one track rise about another as all comfortably flow together without a beginning or ending, truly making for moody night music. Generally, this is a gorgeous record that delivers the goods of a promising label. If nothing else, it serves as the perfect sampler of few of abstract electronic music's formidable new talents. 

Eblake - Limit

Eblake - Limit (Deluxe Records, DLX009CD, 2001) (320)

01  Limit
02  I Am The VJ
03  Piper
04  La Luz
05  Bandol
06  San Francisco
07  Bass Ghost
08  Shen Hua
09  Cribtime
10  Zookeeper

Info and review:

Hello. From the Deluxe Records site, here is how we describe this album:
EBLAKE is one E. Blake Davis, current Seattle resident and master musicologist. "Limit", his debut solo release, is a picturesque journey through refreshingly simplistic worlds, that reveal deeper territory with each listen. From sparse ocean floors to lush dreamy vistas, acoustic chamber instruments rise out of a distant echo chamber as somber piano melodies circle above deep thumping bass tones. Influenced by the dub-techno of Chain Reaction and early Orb, and the warm ambient naturalism of Harold Budd and Brian Eno, Eblake's "Limit" emits hypnotic spacious melodicism and alluring nocturnal mystique...       

Electric Birds - Gradations

Electric Birds - Gradations (Mille Plateaux, MP 112, 2002) (320)

1 Cyclist
2 Nightriders
3 Painted Rooms
4 Slow Motion
5 Astral Traveling
6 Radia
7 Vox Canon
8 Gradations
9 Rian

A couple good Amazon reviews:

In the fast n' furious world of electronic music, the period between the impact of influence and its implementation is remarkably short. No sooner had the legions of Autechre clones seen their white cd covers gleaming from the racks of the local record store, then the error-electronics popularized by Oval were codified as the Glitch. While scores of 2000's class of headbobbing laptoppers have already faded into rightful obscurity, Mike Martinez has managed to grab that elusive golden ring: a release on Mille-Plateaux. Not that Martinez's Electric Birds project needed the stamp of approval of the Force-Inc empire: his music abounds with warmth, subtle detail, and layer upon layer of melody and texture. The sonic ecosystem of "Gradations" compares positively with the work of my personal 2000 artist of the year, Vladislav Delay. Before his Luomo project catipulted him to relative dance-pop stardom, Delay released four of 2000's best discs. What set his work apart from the encroaching clicks n' cuts hordes was the same thing that elevates Electric Birds: change, detail, and a prismatic sense of time. "Gradations" is the first work I've heard since Delay's that takes electronica out of the land of the loop. True, repetition IS part of Matinez's game. It's difficult to work succesfully in the post-techno aesthetic without it. However, his music contains innumerable unique events that squirn through the musical landscape. Scrapes, clicks, pops, chimes, mysterious percussive sounds, subtle ripples in the melodic fabric, shifting beat matrices, expansions and contractions, and so on all add to the richness of the music on this disc. Funk and deep house influences make these sounds as inviting and seductive as they are innovative. A few of these tracks would work as well at a candlelit dinner as they would at an opening of a gallery show of multimedia artwork. Others would send your send your date packing. That's the real strength of Electric Birds, where a unified style, with constant flux as its key component, meets a variety of moods and energy levels. For experimental electronica that's easy on the ears, but rewarding for the mind, look no further.  

There's something pleasing about the endless iterations of click and cut-based music, particularly when it's as warm and inviting as _Gradations_, from Electric Birds. "Cyclist" starts the album out on a neutral IDM note, but once the layers start building, as on the purring "Nightriders," things seem to come to life. "Painted Rooms" sounds like the illegitimate love child of Akufen and Tim Hecker -- not a bad thing at all! -- while "Astral Traveling" blends digital funk with some nice acoustic guitar riffs. The throbbing "Radia" is full of warm, suspended notes with some added bits for flavor. "Vox Canon" sets some tinkling tones to an off-kilter rhythm that never seems to sync up quite perfectly, not even as the track's speed begins to decay. The title track serves up some of that Basic Channel dub goodness, and the final track, "Rian," chugs out on a quasi-industrial dirge that settles into its groove 2/3rds of the way through. Clicks and cuts to make your day!