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German techno producer René Pawlowitz alias Shed release his first new album in 5 years. “The Final Experiment” lands on Monkeytown Records the home of Moderat and Modeselektor. After the death of predecessor techno / electronic label 50weapons, Shed releases on Monkeytown. With the new release Shed defying genre boundaries new again while he delivering an underlying techno motif.

The design of “The Final Experiment” is not to far away from Ryuichi Sakamoto, Brian Eno or Carsten Nicolai. To celebrate the album release Shed collaborate with Berlin artist collective Transforma to create a unique A/V series in Berlin and London. The first sign of the new release was provided by short teaser “Transfroma”, with an excerpt of the album track “Call 32075!”. It’s a beast of a track! From the massive opening noise to the very awesome background melody, one of the highlights from “The Final Experiment”. But there is much more to explore. “Xtra” opens on a mistery way while “Razor Control” feels like a jumping dance track. The atmopshere on “The Final Experiment” isn’t as dark as expected. There are some shiny tracks on it. “Outgoing Society” shines with it’s heavy bass-line. It’s a typically UK garage style element. One of the most massive tracks on “The Final Experiment” is “Black Heart”. It provides no compromises in bass-driven music. The first standalone track marks “Taken Effect”. It’s the most fast forwand track on the new Shed record. Shed is an extraordinary live experience and with the new A/V elements it could be just a little bit more expressive!

Australian drone/ambient mastermind Lawrence English is back with another fantastic record. After the great success of “Wilderness Of Mirrors” back in 2014 the Room40’s label founder returned with “Cruel Optimism”. If you listened to “Cruel Optimism” the first time you can’t believe that almost each of the 11 tracks are collaborations with other ambient musicans. Every tone from the new one sounds entirely like Lawrence English himself.

The main statement of the album title is from a essay of Lauren Berlant. These two words builds a contrast. On the one hand there is the cruel realistic of bad evolutions nowadays (refugees crisis, political extremes) and on the other one is optimism. Without optimism you can’t live on. It is a key element in humanity. Nowadays many people suffers on expectations and external influences from our society. All of them are subjects from Lauren Berlants essay and they are also important elements of “Cruel Optimism”. If you look at “Cruel Optimism” as a drone/amnbient record, it starts with “Hard Rain” a sureal menacing momentum of a track. It floods perfect into “The Quietest Shore” before the powerful “Hammering A Screw” lands. It has his shocking moment at the start! “Exquisite Humen Microphone” is another great track with it’s horn sequences. My personal highlight from “Cruel Optimism” is “Object Of Projection”, with it’s entirly impact. It reminds me of 2015s Rafael Anton Irisarri’s track “Empire Systems”. “Cruel Optimism” is the perfect record for a long walk in the park on a late fall day. Manacing and dark at one side but melancholy and beautiful on the other! Contrasts are everywhere, but my rating for this one is immense. The year starts with some fantastic records and Lawrence Englsih is also in the top bunch. Put your headphones on and hit the play button!

At the end of 2014 David Moore alias Bing & Ruth releases his last effort “Tomorrow Was The Golden Age”. One of my best friends name it album of the year in our usual Best-Of lists by the end of the year. Unfortunately I don’t listen to it, but I can’t say why? In 2016 my friend said that they will release a new record in the early days of 2017.

So I have checked out the first teaser track of “No Home Of The Mind”. It was the neo classical influenced “Starwood Choker”. It was also the opener from “No Home Of The Mind”, the first record on 4AD records. With the change from RVNG Int. to 4AD Bing & Ruth should receive also much more attention. One of the key instrument on the new one is the piano. “No Home For The Mind” was recorded around the States and Europe on seventeen different pianos. So there is no wonder that the refences for the new one are in the neo classical field of music. It reminds me on Nils Frahm, A Winged Victory For The Sullen and the last one from Ben Lukas Boysen. “No Home Of The Mind” is a warm, beautiful and timeless effort in piano driven music. One of my highlights is “The How Of It Sped”. For me it is the best combination between neo-classical and drone elements in one track. The rhythm of the piano stays almost constant while the backgrounds noises creates downs and peaks in atmosphere. It is also one of the best moments on “No Home Of The Mind”. The following track “Is Drop” matches perfect because the feeling is very similar. It is not very easy to describe these kind of music only by words. It transports feelings and emotions, so it is no wonder that many people decribe it as “Head Cinema Music”. The listener creates his own pictures while he listen to the music. Even if 2017 is in the early stages I would be suprised if “No One Of The Mind” isn’t in my year end list. I’m speechless!

Actually the new Demdike Stare record release at the end of 2016. But that’s only include the CD and Digital release. Nowadays manchester based label Modern Love (Andy Stott, Millie & Andrea, Rainer Veil) release the Vinyl version of “Wonderland”. It’s the first album in five years. They doesn’t make a hard cut in style compared to thier EPs but they uses new elements.

“Wonderland” is more aggressive and less spooky as the predecessor. It’s an open secret that I really like the output from Modern Love, because most of them are quality efforts in Techno and UK Garage. The new Demdike Stare is no exception. That’s straight obvious after the first track “Curzon”. For me it’s one of the best Techno/Garage tracks from last year. It reminds my of a helicopter sound. It goes definitely more in the direction of the last Millie & Andrea as the new one from Andy Stott. Also number two “Animal Style” transport a great rhythm feel. At that point it’s clear that it’s not a normal techno record. With “Hardnoise” and “Sourcer”they reach new hights when it comes to aggressive style. One of the highlight from the second half of “Wonderland” is “Airborne Latency”. It starts with a typically distortion beat at the first half until it falls to an ambient-like sound at the end. This track excactly points out the variation of Sean Canty and Miles Whittaker. With “Wonderland” they create a powerhouse of wild, off-the-cuff energy and it sounds like Demdike Stare!

If I listened to the new Emptyset for the first time I have one initial feeling: “Disturbing”! My first reference for “Borders” is the last effort from Roly Porter. It’s that type of dark, frightened and disturbing noise / drone music. If you never listened to that kind of music before you might have a difficult time with “Borders” at the beginning.

Emtyset was formed in 2005 by James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas. Until now the duo produces six records, most of them for Subtext Records. Both started in the Bristol club scene to creates bass-driven electronic music first. Within the years they modify thier music in the direction of noise / drone. One of the typical elemet for Emtyset is distortion. They do not adhere to any rules, so the spectrum of variation is very high. Also becuase the single track time isn’t very long. The record itself has a runtime around 30 minutes. You can’t say what comes next in these 11 tracks. This leads to some shocking and intense moments. My favourite tracks from Borders are “Body”, “Speak”, “Axis” and “Dissolve”. But in case of an album that runs only 30 minutes it makes sense to listen to it in its entirely. By the way “Borders” isn’t an easy record, it demands attention in almost every moment. Another importend thing is, you should be in the right mood for it because, “Borders” isn’t for people with weak nerves. If this should not frighten you, then “Borders” is the right record for you! What a shocking and disturbing record, great!

If I have to describe the new record from Brian Eno in just one word, than I would like to say “Surreal”. I have never listening to him before. Maybe some excluded tracks. But that was a mistake. If you look at the tracklist you will recognize very fast what kind of music you can expect. Just one track and a playtime around one hour. For ambient artists this scenario isn’t untypical. Most of the tracks goes around 10-20 minutes.

In this case Eno plays with monotony without repeating. The melodies and tones only changes in details. There are people that claim that nothing ever happend in ambient music, but they are wrong. The problem is, that ambient differs completely from other typical music genres. You have to take your time to dive in. Another attribute from “Reflaction” is, that it’s totally timeless. You can listen to it just like a normal ambient record in full or you enjoy only a period of time from it. The atmosphere is just the same. Enos strength is to build his own world. And that’s also a key element of ambient music. The audience can be completely isolated of their environment. From the beginning to the end the record runs nearly one hour. My recommendation for “Reflaction” is the following: Headphones on, lights out! The year starts great for experimental music. Hopefully we will see some more in 2017, but we will keep our eyes open. Thanks Mr. Eno for this new masterpice.