easterndaze

Forward + Rewind

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:16:00 +0100

Coinciding with the release of Stone Throw’s highly anticipated second volume of their Minimal Wave series, the new compilation by the Viennese collective/label Future Echo charters the minimal/wave/postpunk/industrial electronics sonic territories. In contrast to Veronica Vasicka’s compilation, however, The Future Echo Tapes mostly features contemporary projects that try to reinterpret the characteristic 80s sound.

There’s also a couple of artists from our hood, including Moduretik, Umrijeti Za Strojem or Zastranienie alongside names like Lust! and the great SSleeping Desiress.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://aufnahmeundwiedergabe.bandcamp.com/album/forward-rewind-the-future-echo-tapes” _mce_href=”http://aufnahmeundwiedergabe.bandcamp.com/album/forward-rewind-the-future-echo-tapes”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Forward + Rewind: The Future Echo Tapes by Various Artists&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Check out our interview with Moduretik here:

Black Sea Manele-Core: Anadolchioi

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:27:32 +0100

Last week an interesting beat-making newcomer appeared on our radar. Coming (or supposedly coming) from the biggest Black Sea port of Constanţa, Anadolchioi is secretive about his true identity. His name is taken from the name of a Constanţa neighborhood in whose proximity he lived (Anadol is also a former Turkish car brand).

“While my neighbourhood (Tomis III) is inhabited mostly by ethnic Romanians, Anadolchioi is home to Gypsies and the biggest Turkish population in Romania and is also a lot poorer and ghetto-like. For me it’s a symbol for the segregation between “high” and “low” culture.”

The beatmaker, inspired by Eurodance, the Romanian turbo-gypsy-folk Manele and Juke tries to “sneak in “unaccepted” and “naive” elements in a “hip” and “intellectual” context in order to blur the lines and hopefully make more people realise the arbitrary and unfair nature of this division.”

Currently working on an 90’s party-mix inspired EP, Anadolchioi will play a debut performance at the upcoming Rokolectiv Festival 2012.

“This is the music I wished I could make when I was 9. My personal musical experience is in this case irrelevant as I’m trying to start from scratch with this project as not to include any stylistic preconceptions.”

Hazy Memories - Out Of Place (self-released, 2012)

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:37:11 +0100

Hazy Memories is a project by a 19-year producer from Husi in Romania. His debut EP Out Of Place is an exquisite entrée onto the Romanian beat scene, where a young generation of producers like Montgomery Clunk, Minus, Polochord or ViLLΛGE further explores the sonic territories of glitch/hip hop, wonky, bass and club-oriented electronica.

Out Of Place is a relaxing, soulful EP whose hazy nostalgic mood is sometimes almost meditative. Its first two tracks I Got You and She’s My Autumn, flow with a slow bass pulse, and the Burialesque percussions on the latter one remind us of Nocow’s Pulkovo Heights minus the dark, brooding athmosphere.

4. Sleepwalk by Hazy Memories

The laidback sound continues on Star Projectors, that borrows influences from juke and its way of working with vocal samples. The chopped and looped vocals are overlaid over smooth, relaxing ambient synthlines to a great effect. The biggest hit of the EP is however the emotional Sleepwalk. Starting very inconspicuosly, with reverbed guitar chords against a backdrop that sounds like the crackle of vinyl, it later drops a touching bass-heavy atmosphere with a wonderful key-progression on top of it.

Hazy Memories’ EP Out of Place is out now as a free download.

dAdA ACTa - Czechoslovakia unites against ACTA

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:35:00 +0100

Remember Czechoslovakia ? The small country once part of the Communist Ost Block? The country that, after its Velvet Revolution and playwright-cum-president Václav Havel, broke apart into Czech Republic and Slovakia ? Well, now it’s united again.

The events of January 18th and #OpMegaupload have spawned not only the first generation of the Czechoslovak Anonymous hivemind, that has DDOSed government agencies under the banner of #czsk ever since. Now also its youngest generation of musicians is united under one banner, that of dAdA ACTa.

[DADA ACTA] No Pavarotti - Oh No Dirty Diana by easterndaze

Ater SOPA was put off, ACTA has taken the center-stage of the struggle against an increasingly un-free and regulated Internet. Even though the Slovak and Czech governments have stopped the ratification process of ACTA to “reconsider”, the battle for the mind of the people still rages on.

dAdA ACTa is a massive 4-CD compilation that was put together rapidly in the course of the last three weeks and features almost everyone that is significant on the Czech and Slovak experimental, electronic and underground music scenes. It is in itself an epic undertaking of immense political and musical strength: not only is it a clear sign that the producers doubt ACTA can improve their standing in any way, it is a radical proposal that they would rather beat up their European MPs than have ACTA ratified. And be sure they say it very loud and clear: the 4-CD compilation features excellent material ranging from harsh-noise through witchhouse and dubstep to triphop, psychedelic electronica and experimental poetry.

The dAdA ACTa is an initiative of the Brno-based electronic musician Michal Šuranský (going under the moniker of Jacques Kustod) and Bratislava’s visual experimentalist An Chaosdroid. Together they have united not only Czech and Slovak musicians, but also visual artists. Their message: “according to ACTA we are all criminals unless proven otherwise [at the expense of our privacy and knowledge]. We challenge ACTA to prove its intentions are honest and civilian oriented, and till not proven we will continue to consider it a threat to freedom of speech and of knowledge.”.

Gustav Tutre & Euchrid Escrow - Digital Assange by GT&EE

We fully support that. You can download the compilation from Archive.org [cd 1, cd 2, cd 3, cd 4] and also be sure to visit the dAdA ACTa website for artist’s statements, more informations and a cool Anti-Acta arcade game :) Big Up !

Fuka Lata and their Saturn Melancholia

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:17:00 +0100

The high priestess of sonic melancholia Lee DVD and Mito Day have delivered their “romantic space songs” on a new record fittingly entitled Saturn Melancholia. Last year, the duo appeared on the Krakow-based label Audiotong with an EP Other Sides. Thus, comparisons are on on hand. The new album reflects their burgeoning live shows. More buoyant (beats) and in a way also pop-inflected but still imbued with their trademark melancholia haze - as if they run the tracks through some Saturn effects processor. Whereas Other Sides was the experimental introvert, Saturn Melancholia is an extroverted introvert.

Saturn Melancholia is out now in Fuka Lata’s label Kondico.

Saturn Melancholia by Fuka Lata

Our interview with the band about the record for the Radio Wave show.

Sangoplasmo is back with 4 new tapes (incl. Felicia Atkinson, Burial Hex and thousands of frogs)

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:12:00 +0100

The great Polish label Sangoplasmo is one the most interesting imprints to emerge from this region over the past few years, having released the likes of Aranos but also several oddly beautiful albums by the likes of Lutto Lento or Katapulto. It’s 2012 release schedule starts off with a bang - with no less than 4 tapes.

Aside from Burial Hex and Felicia Atkinson who has yearning, hypnotic and folorn songs recorded in Amish Country, there is also a lovely little number by the Ukrainian based sound artists Edward Sol. His telling “How Can I Sleep With These Voices In My Head” is an unudulterated, unprocessed field recording of thousands of frogs which he recorded in 2011 in Lychanka, Ukraine where he lives. A psychedelic organic journey into uncanny sounds of nature unfolds.

You can listen to the soundbites here.

January shizz

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:10:23 +0100

Another installment of our monthly podcasts, this time chartering the first month of the year (usually a pretty dead period in terms of releases), but there’s still good stuff released. From Dark Side of Pop compilation by Poland’s Cowshed Records, to the 90s sonic tribute Crni Pek to Romanian hommage to a Czech composer. Sound-wise it’s dark and gloomy and cold, not dissimilar to the weather outside.

January shizz by Easterndaze on Mixcloud

Darkness descends: Lasariage and their R■n■sans

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:38:00 +0100

Poland has been no novice to witch-influenced tunes (courtesy of Cowshed Records), but lately there have been projects appearing on the scene that even though utilising some of the aesthetics of the once popular microgenre, create their own sonic language.

Lasariage is a project of Jakub Wojciechowski who was also featured on Cowshed’s compilation Side Effects last year. His influences range from Boards of Canada via Beastie Boys to Salem. His latest album R■n■sans is out now and it follows in a characteristically languid vein but also offers some light at the end of the day (with customary John F. Kennedy samples on the way).

You can download and listen to the album here.

Zmikeo and his Stem Cell

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:45:00 +0100

Zmikeo! came into our attention whilst frantically searching for Serbia’s up-and-coming musical hidden gems before heading there at the tail end of last summer. We came across the mysterious Zmikeo! (aka Milos Petrovic) - whom we digged so much we put up his first live gig in Pancevo near Belgrade, in September. His dark, uncanny music has blossomed over the time as evident from his latest 13 minute epic track Stem Cell. Less dirty sounding, more weird and adventurous with what sounds like live? drum sounds.

Dark Side of Pop

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:47:00 +0100

Compilations have increasingly become a medium of choice for many labels these days, a quick and easy way how to put up loads of tracks by loads of producers without a need to release separate EPs (we’ve been part of the game too we admit with a new comp coming out in next couple of weeks:). But eventually the more good music gets exposed, the better.

The fledgling Polish netlabel Cowshed Records has a new comp out (check out the previous one here). Originally focused on the much-maligned microgenre witch house, Cowshed rec. is spreading its musical scope into other related macabre aural territories (be it Kate Bush-esque vocals, to dubtech, to dreamy excurcions to techno), and their latest compilation, aptly entitled Dark Side of Pop is only a sonic manifestation of this. It features a diverse array of Polish producers, from the established like Pleq (who delivers a surprisingly witchy number), to newcomers like Ebola Ape who has a nice collaboration with Fuka Lata’s Lee DVD to the Luxembourg import Sun Glitters.

V.A. - Dvořák Remastered [LCLR02]

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:49:00 +0100

Remember about the call to submit re-edits of Dvorak´s ouevre that we posted a little while ago? The resulting audio versions, which oscillates between ambient, beats and “a random trippy deconstruction of Dvorak” courtesy of Romanian but also Czech producers /Sky to Speak/ can be checked out here.

The Local Records selection, an alternative version of the competition results found in the above link, is below:

∑B❍L▲ ▲P∑'s Lovesong

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:38:50 +0100

The mysterious Sopot based producer caught our attention a few month ago (read the article here), and since then he has kept in touch with the wide world via a steady stream of videos and tracks. His latest endeavour is a remix of Husband’s Lovesong accompanied by an old anime video. Below is another of his visual messages about a medical experience.

“This shocking documentary will give you some idea about the strange medical experiments which has taken place at the secret laboratory where Ebo has been kept. The same night when this video has been shoot, Ebo escaped. This video material is NOT A FAKE. The tape has been stolen from the secret archives of the Institute of Tropical Medicine.”

Crni Pek: Serbia's thriving outsider music of the 90s

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:52:00 +0100

A new compilation put together by Nikola Vitkovic (as his independent endeavour) strives to highlight the buoyoant music scene of the troublesome period of Serbia’s history - the 1990s. It seems that the old maxim about art thriving in the age of general gloom is at play in this case as well. Nikola was, however, not interested in the country’s strong alternative indie scene (as an opposition to the state-supported turbofolk) but in the “genius freaks”, the talented and isolated (by their own will) dilettante. The album is divided into three parts depending on the time of inception - early 90s still heavily influenced by the preceding decade, mid-Nineties and the war, and late 90s. Each of these periods is manifest in the music itself, eg. the music made during the war with its almost “retarded” weirdness, a cathartic musical self-therapy. You can download the compilation for free.

What was the motivation behind compiling this list of songs?
The real, initial motivation was the desire to release several albums of experimental music projects from 90s Serbia, for the first time in public. There are dozens of undiscovered experimental gems from that era, but I was specifically interested in escapist projects outside of any scene, people who nurtured their private “one man scenes” in isolation.

I knew that a contemporary listener, whose attention span has tragically shortened, wouldn’t know how to handle such obscure releases and difficult music. So I decided that, along with the full albums on CDr, I should make one free compilation of the 90s experimental music in Serbia and write a little essay about it. I wanted a compilation to provide a broader context for the albums, raise wider interest in the separate projects, and suggest that they should be regarded as parts of the bigger picture of the 90s Serbian under-underground and the psychopathology of its culture.

Pigeons in Space - Starcounter by easterndaze

Can you describe the alternative independent music scene in the 90s in Serbia?

But I must point out that my answer to this question won’t be about the bands on crni pek compilation - they are outsiders from all scenes, and the following generalisations don’t apply to them :)

In the 90’s, serbian alternative music was very much driven by distorted guitars. As someone who grew up in the 80s, I remember being shocked with the overall erosion of standards in alternative music. Everyone was trying to sound like it’s 1976… or maybe they tried to sound like 91? To me, they sounded like 76 anyway. There was much anger, energy, frustration and “resistant” sentiments, but very little else.

In the 80s and before, there has always been a strong negative stereotype about electronic music as being soulless kitsch. When this conservative ‘technophobia’ was over with, our electronic musicians turned to techno. Techno was considered rubbish in the underground scene, because of it’s escapist and hedonistic lack of interest in anything other than drug-induced delirium. So, there was no electronics nor experimentation in the underground scene.

The good thing about the 90s was that the totalitarian situation gave us a sense that whatever we do, it’s leading us to some purpose, some hypothetical [metaphysical?] exit. There was this common urge to transcend ourselves into different occasions. And when you live in a permanent state of emergency, you set your priorities in craziest ways: partying was a priority, making guitar noise also, hanging out on concerts, drinking…

How did the war influence music? You mention that the most experimental bands appeared during the bombing…

The war influenced the media which selected and filtered the music, so we were served a very bipolar choice: be a turbo-folk war veteran [on the state governed media], or an “alternative” rebel [on the opposition’s media]. The majority of music fitted stricly in the respective styles of those two opposing ”philosophies” - you had countless metal/punk/rock/hc clones on one side, and turbofolkers on the other.

This “media dualism” had nothing to do with the expansion of experimental music during bombing. This phenomenon happened when people felt a physical shock of bombing, and realised just how easily they could die any minute, without having even tried to express themselves ever. It was a moment when the worldwide lunacy was confirmed, and that gave us an endless right to reject sanity. With the adrenaline rush and no school to go to, everyone went positively crazy.

Skattor Minox - Methadone Metronome by easterndaze

You mentioned in the accompanying text, that alternative, rebellious music in the 90s was accepted better than smooth pop?

Throughout the 90s, alternative music has become the mainstream of urban culture, that is - young people, people in big cities and generally people who didn’t support the regime. The question of taste has become a question of politics - just as it has always been. There was this paradoxical situation when more people supported some third-grade punks than an easy pop band. People identified their dissatisfaction with provocative culture, like underground comics and lofi movies.

On the basis of that, we could have made the strongest alternative scene in history, but we didn’t! Although there was an enormous public interest in underground genres, almost all our bands sounded alike, which means - oldfashioned and stereotypical. there was no eccentricity, no courage to be original, no genius. except… in private rooms, where social freaks produced their gesamtkunstwerks, in isolation. Crni Pek is a compilation of those freaky geniuses, and it suggests that isolationism is better than populism, and that one’s isolationism [or freakdom] can be of much greater value to a society than populist. What we needed then, and now, are eccentrics who would care and dare to present themselves to the public, with no compromise.

According to what method did you put together the various tracks?

It wasn’t hard to select the tracks, i just tried to fit them in a good “mix”. Much harder was to select the projects which should be included. they had to be:

- unlike any popular alternative cliche music of the 90s

- intentionally isolated

- undiscovered even among the underground circles

- produced whole albums [some of them had more than 20 albums]

- created in the 90s and terminated in the 90s preferably

- serious about what they were doing and strict about the concept of that work [even if it’s sometimes just freaking out improvisation]

STARR & WEBB - jamais by nebriga

How does the 90ties alternative music scene differ to today’s alternative music scene in Serbia and what can it learn from that era?

The scene today is entirely different but all its weaknesses are the same: middle-of-the-road approach, trying to impress and satisfy the target audience, striving to be accepted, trying to sound like some foreign band… and no trace of originality, or authenticity stronger than a “heartfelt imitation”. In the 90s, urban culture needed rough and angry music to express their dissatisfaction. Since 2000, it needs a “European class quality” music, to confirm that we belong to the European culture.

The goals are different, but the mentality is the same, and it’s mediocre. I released the Crni Pek compilation to point out that creatively we are still where we were 20 years ago, and that we need real eccentric outsiders to take part in the public culture, to expose themselves for the first time bravely, shock us, scare us, disgust us, and save us from our middle-of-the-road downfall.

-mrtvi- Sound c128 by easterndaze

How does the Dark Side of the Sun sound like (by Jakub Nox Ambroziak)?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0100

Jakub Nox Ambroziak is a prolific producer with several releases under his belt. His latest offering, released on the label Seventeen Bricks, is called Dark Side of the Sun and consists of dark samples, synths and tells a story about the dark side of the most brightest planets, the hole in the sun and strange noises.

Jakub Nox Ambroziak - Dark Side of the Sun by seventeenbricks

Piernikowski&Etamski: twisting brain wires & beatscapes

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:42:00 +0100

Two noteworthy albums of twisted, fucked-up, spaced out beats have come out in Poland this week. Each approaching beats in their own way - the first more twisted and stretched, the second more straightforward but still somehow eerie way.

First is a live album by Robert Piernikowski from the Polish “hip hop” act Napszyklat and another local producer Etamski, a melee of improvised electronics, that will rewire your brain, experimental, but flowing in its own quirky path which is warm and strangely accessible. Live in Kisielice is a free download.

Meanbucket's bass Massage

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:43:58 +0100

A bass-heavy offering from the Meanbucket contingent, the ambassadors of modern urban dance styles from juke to bass via dub-inflected accelerated bpm. The Prague based label has been getting increasingly prolific, one of their most recent offerings is by Chicago legend Traxman from Dance Mania records.

Their upcoming release is by the Czech Trusty&Freezer. Aside from the original track by the duo, there are also remixes by our Polish friend Dana Dramowicz, head of the Concrete Cut staple (her remix starting off with in an IDMish vein but with enough floor-shaking bass later on), here under her moniker Artfruit, DJ Sliink, Quime or Dryman.

Trusty & Freezer - Massage Creep by meanbucket

2011 in Macedonian music by Toni Dimitrov

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:10:00 +0100

Toni Dimitrov is a mainstay in the Macedonian independent scene. He’s been a part of the brilliant Kanal 103 radio station (which we gatecrashed in autumn, more on that soon) for astonishing 14 years. He’s also a creator himself (tweaking field recordings collected during his many expeditions into Macedonia’s nature), and a curator (through his new label Post Global).

What’s the highlight for you in Macedonia’s music scene?

Last year was a key one in many ways, as well as music wise. There were many projects, events and artists worth mentioning and many that I was involved with:

- 20 years of existence of Kanal103, the radio that I have worked at for already 14 years. It is the most important music/culture media in Macedonia, responsible for the shape and existence of the contemporary music scene as we know it today, in charge of promoting most of the good artists that are still working on the scene today. It is behind most of the good events in Skopje and beyond. We celebrated this anniversary with a few events and festivals presenting the cream of the Macedonian music scene. Listen to us!

- I celebrated 10 years of existence of my radio show Post Global with a couple of events presenting local and international artists, culminating with the festival VICE VERSE which consisted of workshops, exhibitions, video screenings and live performances/dj sets by American, Serbian and local audio/video/visual artists. Plus the 1 year of existence of Music and Politics, another radio program that I’m involved in.

- Have to mention the label Greenfields that released 10 releases last year with international and local artists and diverse sounds. Last spring we did a tour through Macedonia presenting the artists and their work.

- Music and Politics started collaborating with the regional webzine BTurn.com and launched a series of events presenting regional and local artists. At the first party, Belgarade DJ lady Tijana T was promoted with her dj set as well as a local project Jerton. Second party in on the way with Jan Nemecek and Dimitar Dodovski, one of the best upcoming regional artists.

What is the low point for you in Macedonia’s music scene?

- Lowpoints are things that we have to deal with locally so I’m not sure if I want to talk about this and ‘promote’ them internationally. But if you insist the first thing I have to mention is the lack of communication and collaboration between the artists on the scene. Because in my opinion, the definition of the term scene is: SCENE = COMMUNICATION and COLLABORATION. Which does not exist here in the sense of consisting and building.

- Another low point is the lack of clubs. There are no clubs, that means there are no events, that means there is no audience, that means there is no scene! The scene is a live organism, each thing pulls another.

- The mass existence of cover bands is the result of the other already mentioned points. These bands have been playing the same 15 songs in each of the five clubs in the city for years already, but recently they became the only thing that is going on in the club scene. Same people have been going to the same places each day, listening to the same 15 songs every day for years already, and they are fine with it! That’s really sick and that’s not what we want our scene to look like. Of course, here I don’t want to mention the flood of Serbian rock/pop/turbofolk artists playing massive concerts in Skopje.

- The indolence of the audience. If you don’t have clubs and events, the audience is becoming indolent and they are rarely going to events, if at all. Usually they go to mainstream events with big commercial djs and pop concerts or where young people are at – cover bands gigs. Unfortunately that happened here, slowly killing the real artistic scene.

Discovery-new artist of the year /in Macedonia/?

- I will have to highlight Dimitar Dodovski, an artist that has released a couple of tracks and remixes on well known net labels in the dub techno scene like Tropic, Inuoki, Yuki Yaki, Greenfields and even Neo Ouiija, with a release planned for the Japanese label Lantern (Martin Shulte, Arctic Hospital, Taylor Deupree). His sound is deep and beat oriented with variations in minimal dub, dubtech, techno and house. Last year he had great live performance with a drummer. Really mighty experimental dubby but still dancey show.

Dimitar Dodovski & Sasko Kostov Live @ Zdravo Mladi Festival (extract) by Dimitar Dodovski

- Herzel is one of the local artists signed on Greenfields worth mentioning. He also releases on another hard working label Filter. He has released a couple of releases on Greenfields and Filter getting worldwide attention with his experimental post dubstep sound. His upcoming vinyl release will be out soon on Other Heights.

Supernova Remnant EP (free download) [Greenfields Label] by herzel

- Disphilharmonia. The most exciting experimental live audio/video project. A laptop quartet with 3 boys and a girl. They also have really successful solo projects.

Autemu is the girl in the project. She already had a few releases on international labels.

cl-039 | Autemu - This EP by Crazy Language

Baltronic is another solo project from the disphilharmonians with a release on the aforementioned label Greenfields.

Whlekyo by b.aTl

- Delta M45. Two guys are behind this project: Dragoljub Curcic from Serbia (Subotica) and Goce Gligurovski from Macedonia (Bitola) making what is the true meaning of what we call kosmische musik. The perfect album for travelling, no matter if it is in the woods or in outer space. You can listen to it while sleeping and dreaming. Was created last summer during a live session. Coming up in early 2012 on my new label Post Global recordings!

Space Probe by Delta M45

Personal tips and wishes and plans for 2012?

The album of Delta M45 is definitely one of the tips and wishes as well as exact plans. I’m launching my new label Post Global recordings with their album Space Probe as a first release. Can’t wait! Followed by a collaboration release between my project sound_00 and Norwegian artist Iversen. Also got a great new electroacoustic/drone material for this collaboration. We collaborated here for the second time after the first self titled 7” released on Dirty Demos in UK.

After five years of hiatus, we have got together again on our new material, which consisted of drone/ambient pieces. The base of the material are field recordings made in untouched nature in the Macedonian mountains and villages during my trips/climbing, which were edited subsequently in a collaboration process between two artists coming from two different parts of the world. Part of this material will be released on Dirty Demos on a tape format and another part on the label I usually collaborate with Panospria in Canada. After that I’m planning releases from Sebastian Zangar and a re-release of Normal Music, which originally appeared on my first label Acid Fake.

Analogue synth lovers Reverend Dick have a new video

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:15:59 +0100

Reverend Dick from Prague love their vintage analogue synths and a certain almost innocuously and ironically dark atmosphere which they translate into their sound and visual aesthetics (since they are also visual artists, members of the activist art collective Guma Guar). Find out more in our interview and our audio interview for easterndaze’s Radio Wave show.

Here is their new video for Devil’s stone.

Reveren Dick - Devil’s stones from richardbakes on Vimeo.

and here their older one.

Reverend Dick - Alone from reverend dick on Vimeo.

2011 in Slovak music by Filip Drábek and BWO

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:32:00 +0100

Another of our yearly recaps this time with not one but two perspectives on the Slovak music scene. First Filip Drábek from the Exitab label, one of the most active imprints in Slovakia in terms of independent music at the moment and second one is a collective answer from the BWO collective, purveyors of urban dance music in the country.

What’s the highlight for you in Slovakia’s music scene?
Following the relatively turbulent year 2010 when quite a lot of interesting projects emerged, at least in my opinion, the “scene” experienced a sort of hiatus when it comes to new names. On the other hand, a lot of projects from the previous year delivered their proper debut releases: Pjoni & Ink Midget’s album, Gwerkova’s record as well as Jelly Belly’s EP. The opening of the new cultural space Nástupiště 1-12 in Topoľčany is also one of the highlights, connecting music, arts and film with the public space of a bus station exposing passers-by to indenpendent culture.

Gwerkova - NADA by gwerkova

What is the low point for you in Slovakia’s music scene?
The strange circumstances surrounding the loss of the independent collective A4’s Bratislava space. Interestingly, their theatre performances will take place in the premises of the Polish Institute in January. The fact that the Polish provide asylum to Slovak artists in Slovakia’s capital is nice, but sad at the same time.

The Tabačka independent cultural centre in Košice in the east of the country had some funding problems in the beginning of the year and the situation surrounding the European City of Culture 2013 project in the same town is also appalling. The dissolution of the Bratislava-based band Hvozd was also one of the low points of the year for me.

Discovery-new artist of the year /in Slovakia/?
The biggest current discovery is not Slovak, but Bratislava-based English producer Aches who brilliantly merges his woozy guitar strings with beats in an abstract-shoegazy way. The audiovisual project Lowii is also promising. Finally, I’ve managed to check out the Žilina sludge duo Möbius who together with Prešov-based Dawn To Come have managed to lay the foundations of this type of music in Slovakia over the past few months. I also liked some of the releases of the Senica-based hip hop label Tvoja Matka Rekorc, such as 31’s debut EP.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://exitab.exitmusic.org/album/fine-tongue-ep” _mce_href=”http://exitab.exitmusic.org/album/fine-tongue-ep”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Fine Tongue EP by Aches&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Personal tips and wishes and plans for 2012?
I would be glad if our label managed to maintain the busy release schedule of the last year. It would be also great if other labels started to be more active or new ones appeared. I would appreciate if A4 could find a new space and Tabačka and Stanica in Žilina would keep up their good work and people would stop being scared of going to gigs to the Obluda club in Bratislava.

I’m looking forward to the electroacoustic solo LP of Pjoni and the debut EP by Dawn To Come and hope that Teapot and Herzog Herzog will manage to finish their albums, too. It would be nice if I would know about a Slovak release that I couldn’t wait to hear but wouldn’t be on our label. Youcoco perhaps?

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://dawntocome.bandcamp.com/album/dawn-to-come-ep” _mce_href=”http://dawntocome.bandcamp.com/album/dawn-to-come-ep”&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Dawn To Come EP by Dawn To Come&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

BWO

What’s the highlight for you in Slovakia’s music scene?
Lot of parties with music, which a few years ago were in a minority in Bratislava (urban/dubstep, post-xy, dance music in general). Also, the increasing number of collectives around various genres, pop-up events at off spaces (studios, bars, flats), interesting and globally listenable local digital releases.

What is the low point for you in Slovakia’s music scene?
Lack of venues, overabundance of similar events (see above), events clashing on the same dates, less people going to events, the ratio of attending guests on social networks vs the real attendance in clubs (more FB attendees than actual party-goers)

Discovery-new artist of the year /in Slovakia/?
Bad Mojo, Gwerkova, Dawn To Come Klic - Arp (Bad Mojo Remix) by Bad Mojo

Personal tips and wishes and plans for 2012?
Spend less, create more and learn.

2k11 in music

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:01:00 +0100

The December selection of tracks is a special look back at the last year in music of Eastern Europe. Originally produced as a Xmass Special for the Czech national radio channel 4 - Radio Wave, we offer you the show without words, to enjoy one more look back at 2k11. From synthy sonic voyages to Hungarian lofi, to modern Slovak dance, to Polish urban sonics, to Czech “witch house”, to Serbian electro and beyond. Take a ride.

December/2k11 Shizz by Easterndaze on Mixcloud