Easterndaze

Last Foundation podcast + interview

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:21:00 +0200

Last Foundation is a relatively new imprint curated by Gábor Lázár, operating from the burgeoning Budapest electronic music scene. Though you wouldn’t even know it, since their roster includes stars of the international noise and experimental scene including Ekoplekz or Russell Haswell, which they release on tapes, usually as split releases with their local affiliated producers. Aside from the sonic side, there is also the bold visuals by Gergo Szinyova. Here we asked them about the ins and outs of their imprint, and most importantly, you can listen to the music, as mixed by one of the label founders and artist Gábor Lazár.

How did Last Foundation come to being?

Gergo: At the begin Gabor and Martin (Mikolai, S Olbricht) started a label in 2008.

This was the first idea and physically we have released 2 zines. It was a zine with my drawings and music CD included by Gabor’s and Martin’s music. We made two issues only. Three years later in 2011 I was thinking about this label idea more and more. Finally I just wrote them a mail with the subject Let’s start a label. That time Martin started to make house and synthesizer music and said he is thinking about something else, so he started the Farbweschel.

So, finally Gabor and I started to work on it in Summer 2011 and we have made the first release in February 2012, Albert van Abbe’s album, called Patch For Series.

Gabor: As Gergo said; working together was not new situation to us. That fanzine thing just stopped. We don’t know exactly why; maybe all of us have changed a bit and that was the time to think about how to continue, how to implement our ideas and passion into a new way. And finally we found. It started with Albert’s stuff and then eight months passed until the split CD of Ekoplekz / Omne came out. The beginning was quite slow and relaxed. Now the communication with musicians, distributors, retailers and sometimes customers accelerated at my end and the manufacturing process became easier. It is on good way towards a proper balance.

Your backgrounds are in music and art, respectively, how is this translated in the concept of the label?

Gabor: I think there is a lot of connection between very different sounds therefore I think we do not have to translate anything because all of these pieces are already translations of each other through the connections. I would like to present a wide spectrum of creative people who, for example, represent different approaches, unique compositional techniques or people who apply new solutions in the field of music technology. The final purpose is to enrich the culture of music and visual art as well.

Gergo: It is about focusing to the newest music too. Personally in my artistic approach the music were really important and still is. I am not musician, but i feel really strong connections between these fields. It’s quite inspirational.

The cover art is also very prominent, is there a concept behind it? In a way, it is reminiscent of PAN’s bold visual aesthetics that goes hand in hand with the music.

Gergo: Yes, every cover artwork made for each release. I am working in 2 dimensions. Basically my artistic practice is based on the same. I really respect Bill Kouligas and Kathryn Politis’ label but there is no connection between our work. Basically PAN is using photo and graphic layers. The Last Foundation sleeves are simpler, black and white compositions.

Can you tell us about your A&R policy, what artists are released on Last Foundation?

Gabor: I can’t see barriers around music and there is no reason to limit the perspective. It is rather run by passion not policy. I pull people together who affected on me years before or just yesterday and I strongly believe and hope that these editions we release with these artists will affect on other people tomorrow or just years later.

Answering your question about A&R, a few of them were already friends of mine or I met them few times before they collaborated with us like Dirk Dresselhaus aka Schneider ™ who I’ve met in 2011 in Macedonia first and then in Berlin few times when I played there or like Russell Haswell who I met in Bratislava on the 13th Next Festival and then in London few months later. I think to meet people is very important to establish a circle of friends who trust in each other, become friends and work together in order to promote this culture we believe in.

Can you tell us more about the Hungarian artists you release?

Gergo: The first Hungarian is Gabor, but we are not afraid to release other Hungarian productions.

Gabor: For example, a friend of mine Raymond Kiss plays on guitar and makes long compositions of sequences of motives using precise delay setup in order to overlap different variations of different motifs. I really like his stuff, I hope he will record something of it.

What are your future plans?

Gergo: Continuing the work what we started and parallel making other projects too. The forthcoming release will be Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s new album. He is the founder of the legendary Root Strata label.

Gabor: Same. Long-term existance and flexibility. A bit more computer music.

Last Foundation label podcast by Easterndaze on Mixcloud

Binmatu: Sound sounds, it isn't.

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:02:28 +0200

Sound that is perceived per se, with all its physical features and emotional effect on the listener, who perceives it as something subliminal, that goes under one’s skin without the need to rely on melody or harmony. Binmatu “is a ‘priest of sound’, delivering complex air pressure modulations towards ears, presenting certain degree of divine experience - connection with higher powers. Compared with regular priests, BINMATU uses visuals and sound - direct touch on a distance.”

BINMATU @ NEXT festival 2012 from Jonas Gruska on Vimeo.

The project of Slovak sound artist Jonáš Gruska, who studies at the Institute of Sonology in the Haague, rather relies on the physical and mental experience of the sonic, its transforming powers and properties. It is an audiovisual project, which is best experienced in a live context, augmented by visuals and volume. The sound is strong and confident, a fluid medium, which defies stasis, and is never the same, simply “sound sounds, it isn’t”.

Crystylys is out now on Ukrainian label Kvitnu.

Crystylys by Binmatu

12z - playful sonic adventures

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:19:00 +0200

12z is an improvisational project from Budapest, whose regular weekly sessions in their Buda flat overlooking a park and the famous Gellert hill, have lead to a full-fledged album, recorded not in Budapest, but in a countryside hut. 12z’s Marci Kristof has told me that he doesn’t think music that is aimed at live contexts, should be statified on record. This has, nevertheless, happened now, surprisingly courtesy of the Budapest label Farbwechsel, which usually focuses on more 4/4 type of music.

&lt;a href=”http://farbwechsel.bandcamp.com/track/deserted-huts-nearby” data-mce-href=”http://farbwechsel.bandcamp.com/track/deserted-huts-nearby”&gt;Deserted Huts Nearby by Farbwechsel&lt;/a&gt;

Their self-titled album is a psychedelic meddley, manouvering through various sonic territories - art/rock/ambient/free/jazz/experimental/electronics. A syneasthetic soundtrack to hazy faded afternoons, with a dash of Eastern nostalgia, but essentially, uncategorisable, and good that way.

&amp;lt;a href=”http://farbwechsel.bandcamp.com/track/sad-truth-at-roadhouse” data-mce-href=”http://farbwechsel.bandcamp.com/track/sad-truth-at-roadhouse”&amp;gt;Sad Truth At Roadhouse by Farbwechsel&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://farbwechsel.bandcamp.com/track/celebrating-pope-and-antipope” data-mce-href=”http://farbwechsel.bandcamp.com/track/celebrating-pope-and-antipope”&amp;amp;amp;gt;Celebrating Pope And Antipope by Farbwechsel&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;

The song-titles are onomatopoeic, such as “White Mountain Apache Knows No Fear”, and seemingly arbitrary, it’s instrumental music, in the end. The 16 tracks are diverse, and somehow, in spite of being recorded live and by a project that essentially, favours the fleeting rather than the material, it works.

There are also more traditional “songs”on the album, such as “Reflecting Bean”, which features vocals.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://farbwechsel.bandcamp.com/track/reflecting-bean” data-mce-href=”http://farbwechsel.bandcamp.com/track/reflecting-bean”&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Reflecting Bean by Farbwechsel&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

You can listen to the interview with the band in our weekly Radio Wave show Vychodiska - in Czech, but featuring music here.

KataRzia - Bratislava's cosmic accident

Fri, 03 May 2013 12:42:53 +0200

The inherent lofi quality of bedroom-pop is often an alluring even if unwanted side-effect of the production process. This is also the enthralling aspect about the music of the young Slovak songwriter Katarina Kubošiová. She releases her stripped-down and bare skeletons of songs on Soundcloud under the moniker KataRzia. I asked her a few questions.

How did you start writing songs ?

I study film scriptwriting, but since I’m still unable to write a script, I started to write music. From my early teens I have been writing poems, terrible poems mostly about unhappy loves, and rarely about the happy ones. My songs are about the same thing though, with slight variations – about how I fuck up a romance, or someone else dumps me.

KataRziа’s texts revolve around little personal topics, part poetry and part almost childishly sincere snapshots of her day to day life, loves and relationships.

“The songs are snapshots, but I tend to work on each of them at least for a couple of days. The best moments to write are those when I suffer from outbursts of self-pity. Or when I’m in a café feeling alive after eating a huge chocolate candy. I might be childish, that’s why the texts are like that, but I’ve also been an adult for a long time, and my texts are adult too. Actually, I hate immaturity.”

What comes first ? Text or music ? How do you compose music ?

Text is always the first thing. Music is created separately. Later on I somehow merge them, rewrite the text to be sung and try to learn to play the song. I record it into my mac’s garage band through the shitty mic which is more suited for skype calls then music. I records several takes because one can’t understand a word from what I sing. I lost the ability to look objectively at my music. I believe it must sound horrible. Nevertheless it is the only thing I do that brings me joy (apart from ingesting carbohydrates). Especially when I play live. Those are the moments when I feel so much alive.

The attractivness of KataRzia’s music lies not only in her song and text-writing talents, but also in the imperfection of her sound. Reverb and layering of vocals are not meant as aesthetic devices but rather serve to camouflage the low quality and errors in the sound. Apart from using her guitar she also plays a transverse flute “it is hard to do harmonies with it and its hard work, it is too fragile and its perfection bothers me” and owns a violin “I tried to master it for two or three years, but only because I tried to seduce a folk violinist”. However, KataRzia’s live shows are just about vocals and the guitar.

“I play live only with a guitar and my voice because I do not own any mixer or looper. I dont even have a microphone cable or any amplifier. One day I get a looper though. But I’m in no hurry. If I would have the skills, I would write nu jazz or fusion jazz, but I’m dumb, and that’s why I do music like that. In a transcendental way it fills me up.”

What are your plans for the future ? Are you preparing a debut ?

I’m in the process of producing a record, but I don’t want to speak about it yet. I’m not writing music to get famous, or to earn money. I just wish that people who listen to it feel something and laugh, and understand they are not facing life alone. My problems are so banal against the real trouble. I think people might not be interested in listening to emotional outpours of some teenage girl anyway. However since there’s no war here and there are still some chocolate candies at hand, I write about Love, that cunning bitch.

In the future I want to seize and use the hidden comedy I feel inside me. To use it constructively to make people happy and not depressed. Tracks from last year are mostly sad, as it was a sad period, but it is getting better and the record will feature also “happy” songs. Jokingly I call them “hits”, but I do hope that at least some of them will be, because it has no big sense to do anything if not for the people. That’s how it is with any art, even though I don’t consider myself an artist. The fact that i do music is just a cosmic coincidence.

From the vaults of the Czechoslovak underground - Quarantaine's Lichtempfindlich

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:12:00 +0200

CS Industrial has recently started as a Facebook page digging out Czech and Slovak industrial and EBM tinged videos and tracks from the period between 1982 and 2010, in a way effectively creating an online archive documenting the birth of Czech and Slovak electronic scene, which considering the political and societal conditions at the time this music was made, is also an expression of the then zeitgeist. The industrial electronic scene, with its guttural alienated atmospheres and paranoid undercurrents in Czechoslovakia has always been strong.

CS Industrial in a step that is only natural, has just brought out its first bandcamp release by Quarantaine, a project that has caught my ear as soon as they posted it on FB. The original project “was ephemerous collaboration between Jaroslav Palat and Slavek Kwi, active in early 80ties in Prague, former Czechoslovakia.” Their album Lichtempfindlich was recorded in Prague in 1984 and self-published on cassette in 1985, is a manifesto of this “ephemeral” collaboration, which even after 30 years, stands the test of time. In a way, it reminds me of Smersh’s proto primitive electro/post punk experiments, with their rough around the edges, but maximally charming compositions, recorded every Monday and never replayed.

The Quarantaine album is a free download, so make sure to get it, while it’s there.

06 by QUARANTAINE 08 by QUARANTAINE 01 by QUARANTAINE

It’s almost exactly three years since we started this, our...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:31:00 +0200

It’s almost exactly three years since we started this, our Eastern adventures, sonic explorations, meeting amazing people, listening to great musics, climbing up the Soviet monument in Varna with Жълти Стъклa, to visiting cold wave musician and artist Wojciech Bąkowski in his flat in Poznan, chatting to animal activist and artist Penka Popova in Plovdiv, and impromptu broadcasting from the great diy radio Kanal 103 in Skopje at midnight. this video, featuring some shaky footage from our travels, was made by our friends a while ago, maybe it’s time to post it finally ;) Thanks to Fundaluka for making it for us! <3

The chimerical techno of RSS Boys remixed by Pawel Pesel and Mangrove Mangrave

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:03:00 +0200

RSS Boys linger in secret, though they recently appeared on the Wire Tapper CD, their identity or whereabouts remain cloaked in a veil of mystery, aside from the fact that they release their prolific output /their latest album proper appeared in March/ on the acclaimed Mik Musik! and are part of their Secret Editions, alongside artists like Pawel Pesel /whose great release Ekscentryzm was released last year/ or Mangrove Mangrave whose release is equally pleasing the adventurous ear. All of them share a certain kind of sonic aesthetics taking its cues from slow, mangled techno and psychedelic atmospherics. Something that would fit well at 7am in a dark, spartan-like venue, where bodies writhe with amphetamine comedown, devoid of basic humane functions, responding to primordial elements of music, the kick, the bass.

CAUTS C00TS by MANGROVE MANGRAVE & RSS B0YS

Though it is not to say the music is simple, it just emanates from those corners of the dancefloors that eschew the testosterone like relentlessness in favour of the chimerical, opaque and sometimes, as is evident in these two reworkings, which were released as part of the Record Store Day on Saturday, 20 April, even ethereally cheerful. The RSS Boys remixes is an ongoing project that keeps expanding, so follow their Bandcamp page for further additions.

DR1 DR2 DR3 | DR4 by Paweł Pesel & RSS B0YS

Slovak sampledelic - Samčo, brat dážďoviek - Európske hlavné épéčko kultúry

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 21:45:00 +0200

Samčo, brat dážďoviek is a peculiar phenomen on the Slovak sonic scene, an epitome of weirdness that is not a try-hard, but rather a genuine expression of artistic intention. His March EP, entitled Európske hlavné épéčko kultúry /European Capital EP of Culture/ is a pun on the increasingly controversial European capital of culture project in the eastern Slovakian city of Košice. Brimming with various field recordings, recorded in various locations, including Brno “ghettos”, Košice streets, samples and whatnot, it drawing parallels from Negativland and People Like Us mash up sonic activism.

Európske hlavné épéčko kultúry by Samčo, brat dážďoviek

Makunouchi Bento: The Guardians of Rare Pieces

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:09:08 +0200

The Timisoara-based duo Makunouchi Bento make soundtracks for their imaginary movies. At times opulent, adventurous sonic textures are woven into a tapestry of imagination, transporting the listener into non-descript moments in time, a gentle, fragile odyssey that is peculiarly haunting, playful and dreamlike. It’s not a placid lullaby throughout though, there are more uptempo songs in there, too. They have assorted their unreleased tracks, collaborations, and whatnot into two “compilations” so far, a personal retrospective with tracks spanning a decade.

The Guardians of Rare Pieces: Compilation Tracks by Makunouchi Bento The Guardians of Rare Pieces: Singles and Collaborations by Makunouchi Bento

Polish theory of relativity - podcast

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 11:41:39 +0200

Polish theory of relativity by Easterndaze on Mixcloud

A special podcast prepared by Jacek Plewicki from the great music magazine Glissando. Here, he highlights some personal highlights, unreleased material as well as forthcoming gems, picks and special tracks sourced from the vaults of contemporary Polish sonic underground.

Route 8 - Mental Murder, and his lofi house

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:38:00 +0200

Route 8 emerged from the sprawling Hungarian lofi scene that mostly encompassed guitar-driven and quirky electronic acts. Route 8’s sonic trajectory verged towards the dancefloor, the dancefloor of slow, hypnotic tunes made on analogue hardware. This was already apparent during his live set we put on for him in Budapest a year ago, and comes more pronounced on his latest EP, out on the great Budapest label Farbwechsel.

Never Ending Journey by Route 8

Mental Murder is almost raw, jacking house music, with lofi hisses and atmospherics, but remains quirky enough, just check the ending of the title track. This is not clean-cut house for yuppified dancefloors, but rather a hazy, melancholic exploration of the fringes of 4/4. And then there’s that remix, yes Miguel Flaco nailed it.

Till Dawn (Miguel Flaco’s Deep South Revision) by Route 8

RSS Boys - TH T00TH 0F TH FTR

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:33:00 +0100

RSS Boys, the enigmatic project emerged last year as part of Mik Musik’s Secret Editions series. Their quirky techno has already caught our ears with their debut release, and recently, their track appeared on a Wire Tapper CD. They revel in cryptic song titles, whilst the music follows in a rhythmic, technoid trajectory to trance-enducing psychotropic effect.

F0G by RSS B0YS

The sophomore release is not as relentless as the first, with introspective and uncanny atmospheres interspersed, ushering the listener into deep, hypnotic territories, let’s be lazy and call it opium techno. There are slower, polyrythmic outings, as well as classic unrelenting RSS material, prominent bass, even oriental patterns. This is experimental techno at its best!

TH T00TH F0R TH T00TH by RSS B0YS

Reclaiming rave: Lightning Glove - Fantasmagorie interiéru

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 11:51:00 +0100

Lightning Glove is a Czech project that emerged from the murky circles of the Prague noise/psychedelic collective Klangundkrach. A trio, accompanied by a visualist, Lightning Glove strive to resurrect rave from its sad sold-out existence, as they told us in an interview:

The music has inherent allusions to the likes of Excepter or Suicide, with a dash of Coil or Throbbing Gristle for a good measure, a psychedelic lo-fi guttural onslaught that you can listen to and groove to, as well, aiming for the treshold between psychedelics and post-dance, with yearning vocals, delayed samples, tweaking the hidden ghost out of their drum machine, to create an aural shamanistic excercise. As with “classic” rave, the album is a story with ebbs and flows, climaxes and comedowns.

The band will launch the release, out on tape, on Wednesday, 20 March at our almost regular Baba Vanga event with Ultra Eczema’s analogue fiend Nachtbote in Prague.

Fantasmagorie Interiéru by Lightning Glove

Gloryhole: Heavenly Remixes

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:40:00 +0100

Gloryhole is a Hungarian indie garage/pop band, whose songs are perfectly accessible and radio friendly in The Smiths kind of way, even your mum would like them. Enter “Heavenly Remixes”, a collection of beat-driven remixes, mostly by local producers, which have ended up completely recontextualising the original, turning it into at times harrowing, menacing offering. Highlights include Zoltan Solomon’s Reverse Vocal Dub Remix, Farbwechsel’s S Olbricht’s melancholic acid refix or The Stanley Maneuver’s dreamy quirky version.

Heavenly Remixes by GloryHole

MANASYt – Hailing from the Otherside

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:54:00 +0100

It may seem ironic. Finding a Bulgarian producer can be an easier task if you choose to look outside, rather than within the borders of our country. They seem to be thriving out there, unburdened by our homeland’s troublesome past, absurd present and ever so uncertain future. One such producer is MANASYt – one of the most accomplished Eastern European industrial electro producers in the last decade, with an impressive volume of releases for various labels and monikers /incl. Sam Lowry/, for imprints such as Legowelt’s Strange Life Rec. or Andrea Parker’s Touchin Bass. MANASYt emigrated in the late 90s to a wonderful life moving across three continents, and a dream come true – music. He has recently put most of his output on bandcamp, after having a sort of musical hiatus for a while. When I approached him for this interview, he was surprised that anyone from Bulgaria would be interested in his works as an artist. Here is the record of our short virtual encounter.

Could you briefly introduce yourself?

Petar Tassev, 36, living in China, born in Bulgaria.

How and when did you feel the urge to make music?

Apart from the band thing (I was a vocalist, I cannot play any instruments), I started doing electronic stuff in 2002. I was living in the States at the time. A friend of mine showed me how he made simple techno tunes on his laptop. Music was such a big part of my life so I thought I could try to make my own. I told my friends that one day I’ll put my music on a record, and they laughed. But that took only a year.

Your bio on your Facebook page is both funny and scary – “MANASYt hails from the twilight zone - post communist Bulgaria. Growing up with Swans, Voivod, Godflesh and singing in hardcore/metal outfits has a big influence on his current sound.” Could you elaborate on this? How has being from Bulgaria shaped you as an artist?

Well, for me it was a twilight zone because I grew up in a communist country. We had to pay certain people to get foreign music at that time. Bring a blank tape to their house so they can record the album for us and write the tracklist for the cover :) We had no CDs, no computers, no email. Most guys growing up in Eastern Europe were metalheads or rappers :) I was into metal, long hair, stretch jeans, band patches and all that, so there was always trouble in school, haha. So my current sound is more influenced by guitar based stuff (metal + industrial) than any electronic music I got into in the following years.

Blood To Sand by MANASYt

Why did you leave Bulgaria?

I left in 1998, so I was only 22. I had a chance to visit the US with a 4 month program from my University. It was really difficult to leave the country or travel in those years, so I gave it a try. Those 4 months turned into 7 years.

Tell me more about the time you spent in the USA and how it affected you music-wise…

I was in South Carolina (of all places) for 6 years. So maybe that messed up my sound for good! :) The first electro I heard was pretty late, I think it was ADULT. I was never into Kraftwerk or any old-school stuff. I was making a lot of music, maybe 5 tracks a week. I was sending all my demos to Europe, so after the first record for Kommando 6, it all started rolling pretty quick. Released records in Belgium, UK, France and so on. I played my first gig in Ohio in 2003. Met some people from Detroit there and shortly after that I packed whatever I could in my car and moved there. Started making a lot of music contacts and playing in clubs.

Why did you come back to Europe?

I guess I just felt the need to go home. So in 2005 I left Detroit and flew back to Bulgaria.

Listening to your music feels like a journey into a hopeless industrial future, evoking images of apocalypse, desolation, grinning malevolence….is that simply your love for this particular type of aesthetics, or are there any other reasons - be it personal beliefs, philosophies, other forms of art like books, movies, images, etc. – for your sound to be so cold and sinister?

No personal beliefs whatsoever, just drawing inspiration from the world around me, usually the negative things. It naturally comes out of me this way, I don’t force this mood. I cannot make a jolly commercial house track even if I want to (not that I would). So I have no idea how to explain this in a better way, haha. Movies and images – oh yes, big time! I’m a big movie buff, I watch some very unknown and rare stuff, sometimes shocking and disturbing. Stuff that most people would turn off but it doesn’t bother me, I like to watch stuff that challenges my brain…The dark, absurd, weird, grotesque, perverse, twisted but ingenious kind of stuff.

Judging by your output you are quite a prolific artist. How do you typically compose a track?

My best tracks take only hours to finish, so it’s very impulsive. I don’t like to leave stuff unfinished and come back to it after a long time, it will lose its intensity. I am not a technical kind of guy, I don’t know anything about professional audio production. I do it mostly by ear and the ‘touch here to see what happens’ kind of way. I don’t use headphones, it is very loud in my room when I make music :). People ask me about my studio, the truth is I don’t have one, haha. There’s a laptop, a MIDI keyboard and 2 speakers. I’ve never used or had hardware and I don’t feel the need to. So you won’t see a fancy photo of me posing in front of hardware racks, looking proud and all. If you have ideas in your head and put them to music and sound like yourself then it is interesting to me. Doesn’t matter what you use to make it happen. Anyone can buy a bunch of machines and try to sound like Anthony Rother. The robots, droids and machines are taking over the world and we have sex with them, too. I have had enough of that :).

Tell me more about your Sam Lowry alias…

Sam Lowry was the main character in the movie Brazil (Terry Gilliam). There are many references from it in my music. It is usually beatless stuff, I did an album for Legowelt’s Strange Life Records some years ago. It is something like relaxed horror music or maybe not. It is pretty varied, I think some different moods than MANASYt.

Furthur by Sam Lowry

You wear a mask on your live performances, why is that?

It’s more fun, the image fits the music I think. And makes me less nervous in front of a lot of people :) Someone stole one of my masks in Belgium! That was a mad evening…

How do you feel about the current state of underground electronic music industry? I see you’ve been uploading many of your releases on Bandcamp, though not too many free downloads to lure listeners

It is pretty bad compared to say, 5 years ago, at least forme. I think it is really difficult for labels to press records and sell them these days. The kids listen to dubstep I guess…Everyone who’s doing electro is in their 30s and 40s like me. So who knows what will happen after 10 years? The whole digi release thing is not very inspiring, to say the least. There’s 5 free tracks on my Bandcamp I think LOL. All my music is shared for free on Soulseek, go check it out :)

Have you ever considered making music for a living, or you prefer it to be just a hobby?

I lived from my music for around 3 years. I was playing in 2-3 countries every month. I’d never imagined I’d have a chance to do that and it was an amazing part of my life.

Are you planning any future releases?

It is not like it used to be. I guess I’ll have a track out every once in a while if someone asks me to do so (if it is vinyl).

More Meat by MANASYt

You are currently residing in China…how is Asian culture influencing you – both personally and artistically?

Personally – a lot! Asia is like another planet. It has opened my mind so much. Any Western country wouldbore the crap out of me right now. I was in London before I came here, sorry, I don’t consider it a nice place to live. A lot of people are even scared to go to Asia but there’s no other way to find out about a place than going there! Artistically – not much, I haven’t done much music since I moved here. I have played only 1 gig in Shanghai for the last 2 years, but it was worth it!

Do you follow the political events in Bulgaria? What are your feelings about what’s happening here?

I’m not a political kind of guy and I usually don’t watch TV or follow the news. But yes, I know what’s happening but I have no idea what to say and what’s the right thing to do. Our government is like a Merry-go-round or something but it’s the same people that get on it. So I don’t have much hope about it getting any better.

Finally, would you ever come back to Bulgaria?

Maybe, when I’m old :) I plan to live here for a long time, the lifestyle suits me well. I can travel a lot too which I enjoy. I go home once a year, for a month, in the summer. It is enough for me to see family and friends every once in a while. But at this point I have no desire to live there.

MANASYt’s sonic output is here.

By Snezhana Bezus, who runs the blog Beatbucket.

SFA005 - Zelený Antoin

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:34:00 +0100

Recorded at our Easterndaze event in Brno in 2011, and in summer 2013 at Bratislava’s FUGA, a psychedelic, post-punky noise-driven journey into disquieting sonic realms, is now being released as a free download by the Czech netlabel Signals from Arkaim. The audio instantly brings recollections of the dinghy environs of the Boro club, where Antoin unleashed his psychedelic voyage, on a bleak autumn night. Rewind to 2013, and the live set, devoid of the nocturnal environs, stands as an epic set that oscillates between post-punk through ambient and noise.

Get it here.

VooDooMan - the sonic sorcerer from Bratislava

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 16:27:00 +0100

The Slovak sonic sorcerer VooDooMan, based in Bratislava, one of the firm personas of the local noise/audio scene, revels in hypnotic aural fissures, disorienting journeys through mangled synapses, created in his own custom-built software. His prolific output counts numerous tracks, from 3 second to 80 minutes long, an endless stream of aural conscioussness. Some of his recent output can be checked via his podcast page, with a proper release expected in the near future.

Here are his descriptions:

This track is based on Acidmilk’s work. He did samples that are in the background. I used it to generate the sound. I concatenated 7 Acidmilk’s samples together, while the first is at the end of the song again, therfore the word “mix” in the name of the song. I used 128-bit float precision in rendering process. You can notice that 2 effect structures are in a lag compared to the samples, this is because there is longer buffer for counting average frequency of Acidmilk’s work that the effects mimic. Random-like clicks are caused by intentional imperferfection of schmitt trigger gate that is responsible for turning on and off the constant-frequency oscillator.

I’d like to mention this track is not about growing old, but about particular momentary state of your mind rather. Like you had stopped the timewatch and took a snapshot, though the picture is still in movement in your mind. I chosed name ‘freewheeler’ since the generator structure of the original sound that passed through was actually adjusting itself like a freewheeling system. I would like to dedicate this song to neutrinos, since I feel the colors of the resulting sounds in this song are like the neutrinos are penetrating the matter withouth (mostly) affecting it, or interacting with it.

Listen to our radio interview with VooDooMan here /in Slovak/.

Zomblaze - New Age (2013, Chi Recordings)

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:58:00 +0100

We featured the Hungarian beatsmith Zomblaze on our first compilation back in 2011. His sample and bass-heavy abstract hiphop was released by Chi Recordings last year. Now he is back with 6 more tracks.

New Age EP presents a more mellow side of Zomblaze’s production, with lush, almost jazzy vocals on the first track Breath Deep, followed by smooth and deep grooves of the cinematic Stratosphere, pulsating night-time uncertainty of the Lynch Theme, culminating with the emotive and nostalgic banger Hundian with Zomblaze’s trademark messed-up and twisted synths rising and falling from a Hungarian folk song.

<a href=”http://shop.chi-recordings.com/album/new-age” data-mce-href=”http://shop.chi-recordings.com/album/new-age”>New Age by Zomblaze</a>

Wilhelm Bras - Wordless Songs by the Electric Fire - DIY analogue noodling

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:21:00 +0100

Mik Musik has revamped itself last year with a slew of releases, mysteriously titled, and following in a gritty, psychedelic danceable vein. Mostly part of its super secret anonymous edition, acts like RSS Boys, Mangrove Mangrave or PAWEL PESEL, have pursued a wonky, exploratory techno direction, without utilising many of the usual genre tropes.

The new installment of Mik’s new sonic policy is Wilhelm Bras /Pawel Kulczynski, a musician and sound artist/, an avid analogue synth enthusiast, who builds his own machines, a neo alchemist of sound. His new album - Wordless Songs by the Electric Fire - is a prime example of noodles and glitches sourced from his living and breathing electronics, a result of years of DIY nerding and sonic research. Danceable, bubbling analogue beats and trippy atmospherics make it as apt for the dancefloor, as for your home listening. The warmth of analogue and the weird sounds conjure a world that’s playful and utterly likeable /in our universe, that is/.

Find out more about Wilhelm /Pawel/ on Wednesday on our regular weekly show for Radio Wave, live stream at 11:20 and 16:20 /CET/.

Wordless Songs by The Electric Fire by Wilhelm Bras

You can listen to our interview for our weekly Radio Wave show Vychodiska below.

B.ATL - SKTCH EP /aka a glitchy disorientation, electronics exploration/

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:24:00 +0100

When we visited Macedonia’s capital Skopje, the punkish Kanal 103 radio, located in the socialist remnant of a building surrounded by a police station and a hooker strip, it seemed like the place where anyone making anything worthwile sonically, congregated. Running their own shows, playing concerts, etc.

One of the guys who works there is B.ATL, part of the Disphilharmonia collective, IDM inspired dissonant digital noiseniks. Here, he comes solo with a broken, glitchy offering, which recalls the heyday of the genre in the 90’s, but somehow follows its own path, to disorienting, almost lucid effect.

Free download.

SKTCH EP by B.ATL