What is the relevance of local scenes in a globalised culture? I would argue that it´s increasingly important. A similar conviction is probably held by the guys behind Local Records, a Bucharest based record label which also functions as a promoter of Romanian independent artists. We have met Bogdan at Local Rec. whilst in Bucharest in 2010 and his vision of Local seemed enthusiastic. After several gigs for Romanian artists hosted in cities like Barcelona or Berlin and a monthly! release schedule, they have decided to capture 2011 in terms of Romania´s music scene.

The 14-track compilation is a sonic journey through dreamy, dancey electronics with some of the names benowned to us - eg. Montgomery Clunk (he played at Easterndaze curated night at the Sperm Fest in Prague in April), Hipdiebattery or Minus, but there are some new names too. Overall, the tracks conjure an xmassy vibe, perfect for end of the year melancholy-dreaminess, starting slowly and gradually climaxing into 4x4 territories.

[LCL11] V.A. - Buzz.RO! 2011 by Local Records

You can listen to our 2010 audio travelogue from Romania for Resonance FM here.

A sonic tapestry of everyday life, confessions of drug addicts, mentally disturbed and alcoholics, of cafes and factories, streets or religion of and related to Serbia. Svet je davno zakovrno is a project by the Pančevo-based Mileta Mijatovic and his several contributors, including our friend Vladimir Lenhart, who supply him with sonic ephemera, excavated from tapes, vinyls or recorded on dictaphones.

The results are authentic - the sound-bites are not processed - and somehow hauntological, or haunting? SJDZ has been dormant since 2004 to gave rise to the band Klopka za pionira. Recently though, it has been resurrected. You can hear the latest recordings on their Soundcloud.

Kosmoholizam - Radovan Popović by Svet je davno zakovrno

Centrifuga by Svet je davno zakovrno

Romana - barbika, action man i ken by Svet je davno zakovrno

Refashioning classical music by contemporary, often electronic producers, seems to be quite popular these days, with varying results. Austria has done a similar project with recontextualisations of Haydn or Schwanensee and this time, it’s a mutual collaboration between Romania and the Czech Republic. An open call for remixes of the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák invites young or established producers to create their modern versions of the 19th century master on the occasion of his 170 birthday anniversary. 

During the whole month, aspiring Dvořák remixers should recreate any piece or fragment from his ouvre, all styles are welcome. The remixes will be uploaded here. The remixes shouldn’t be longer than 5 minutes. They will be sent in mp3 format, 320kbps, at ccbucuresti@czech.cz (via transfer.ro, wetransfer etc). All the received tracks will be subjected to the Creative Commons license.

Deadline: December 31st, 11:59pm.

The best tracks will also be broadcast on Radio Romania Cultural and the Czech Radio and the winner will receive a trip to Prague. 

“It’s a mystery where the music comes from and why it sounds the way it does. We look for the answer in the garden of the invisible architect – and try just to be…“

To make electronic music today is quite simple. Every day new faces appear on the scene, the internet is full of projects, and unfortunately loads of them sound the same. Worshiping the big names, then checking tutorials how to make perfect sounding bass (or bass sounding more like Benga or any other big shot), music makers become lost while chasing technical perfection. In the end, the results are mostly boring and generic, more mindless than smart. The album Invisible Architect by the Bulgarian duo 1000names is fortunately not the case.

1000names (even though now based in Berlin) is the first Bulgarian act which we are reviewing on our page. The “long-term friends and collaborators”, are back in the game for the third time with their latest release. The beatifully designed 2LP Invisible Architect is their plan to make it big.

The final product, loosely based within the post-dubstep/wonky range is slighly different from your average sounding next-door producer. Slowly building-up atmospheres, groovy and hypnotic rhytms, a wide variety of vocal samples and slowly pulsating synthetizers. Beats are pounding, heavy like mountain rocks, sometimes they repeat themselves without any major changes and immediately drag the listener into their sonic universe. It’s very easy to get into that game. Milky Plastic is a slowly evolving track, taking you on a mountain trip, while Pi Day has got that 80’s hypnagogic vibe inside, reminiscent of James Ferraro’s night out in London. Its hard to get bored with the Invisible Architect, as it’s fusing a variety of other musical styles together, sometimes it’s about swing, other times it’s more about space trips.

In Walkin’ Tales we can hear Roland-808, the legendary 80’s drum machine, widely used by contemporary producers these days. Not overused too much here though, you can hear claps and trademark hits of it here and there, and it really fits. Taking the atmosphere of post-dubstep and cutting it with broken beats, warm analogue sounds and wonky aesthetics creates a unique and outstanding sound.

The track mastering is marvelous. Possibly mastered trough some vintage devices, it can fill the room with really thick and deep sounds. More dirty and misty than clean, it proves that you don’t need to be super clean and perfect to create something with soul. Plenty of big producers should learn from these guys how to avoid cliches when using them. The Invisible Architect is catchy stuff.

Props to 1000names to prove that there is still space to express yourself originally using the language accesible to the casual listener. If you like atmospheric, rhytm packed wonky with loads of spacey sounds, do not hesitate and listen. This is how long-term friendships should actually look like.

Another in our supposedly regular monthly podcasts presenting the best music we could come across in the given period (geographically attuned to our focus of course:). This installment turned out slightly deranged with lot of spoken word, psychedelia and twisted electronics.

The brilliant label Sangoplasmo features heavily, as does Polish music with Grobbing Thristle’s reworked album Other or ∑B❍L▲ ▲P∑’s post-witch garage? stuff. Slovenia’s dancer and vocal artist Irena Tomažin whispers with her delicate voice while Romanian hyperactive multi Soundcloud personality urchins Somnoroase Pasarele deliver the f-word repeatedly. There’s also the great new record by Slovakia’s hardware experimentalists Jamka and a bit of techno at the end.