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.

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/.

New label alert. Plunderphonics is a new digital imprint established this year by the 18-year old Krystian Stebnicki. Since its inception in June 2012, he managed to bring out four idiosyncratic releases ranging from faux French-sung wave/EBM of Cochon Porc, to MOLR DRAMMAZ’s disorienting experiments. The plunderphonic maxim is applied subtly, without obvious allusions to pop culture, recalling the often inherently disturbing sonics of the Residents rather than playfulness of Negativland.

Can you tell us about Plunderphonics, its history?
It all started two years ago, when I was sixteen years old. I had heard about the netlabel ‘by?em kobieta’, founded by a friend of my sister from her university. I immediately fell in love with the sound of the label and it is still the case today. Later I started to search for my own experimental music performers. Sangoplasmo records (cassette label) delivered another dose of inspirations. I bought some tapes from this label and told to myself, “I dig the music, so maybe I should try my own netlabel”. I read on twitter of the  band Satanicpornocultshop that Dagshenma’s album is the best thing they have heard. I checked this and indeed it was fantastic.

I asked Dagshenma if he would like to release a record on Plunderphonics and he agreed, and it was a hit. I created the site on bandcamp and I started promotion. When my friends listened to his ‘Humane Humane’ they told me:”What’s that sounds?! Some noise and crackles from the speakers …” haha. The interest has increased significantly after the release of the MOŁR Drammaz’s last album: ‘Semperflorens’. Wojtek Kucharczyk was very helpful.

ON TOUCHE NOS CULS from cochon porc on Vimeo.

What sort of sound are you concentrating on?
I am concentrating on all kinds of experimental music, but I’m open to all genres. I’m just trying to promote extraordinary music. for people who are looking for new musical horizons. 

Can you tell us about the releases you have so far?
First release was Dagshenma’s “Humane to Humane”. This is white noise from Japan. Second release was WeeGee’s “megatr[ ]nne EP” from the US. This is a very nice, short EP, which sounds a little like chillwave. The third release was by CochonPorc from Poland with an album called: “Tête”. This record aims to mix French arrogance with the brutality of industrial mass killing. The fourth release was MOŁR DRAMMAZ’s “Semperflorens”., a compilation consisting of 10 previously unreleased tracks by Mołr Drammaz’s more electronic period between 2000 and 2004 (and beyond) and 10 songs that were already released on previous albums. This album shows the originality and variety of the work of MOŁR DRAMMAZ

Are you in any way inspired by John Oswald’s plunderphonics concepts? Sampling, reappropriation, etc?
Yes, I’m big fan of the plunderphonics phenomenon, but I’ve heard about plunderphonics for the first time when I read a review of the cassette ‘Death Beam’ by Lutto Lento. Maybe someday I will be able to promote an artist in this genre of music. 

What are you planning for autumn?
Still looking for new interesting artists. All I can say now is that in late autumn I’m planning a Czech surprise. 

http://plunderphonics.bandcamp.com

Bratislava-based visual artist Boris Vitázek aka Stix is a well known VJ working mostly with the post-dubstep producer Stroon. Stix is also the main force behind the techno nights Trashold in the now legendary venue Subclub. Claiming a new role, his project Subspecies documents his first ventures into the domain of music production.

Stix’s first track was premiered on the dAdA ACTa compilation in the february of this year. Take was a solid 105bpm knackered techno pounder, and it seems Stix enjoyed doing it.

Subspecies owes much to the sounds of techno. The record’s solid, pounding beats and organic structures are meant to be an interpretation of an animal race, whose communication is based on sound. They live on the border of complex caves and rainforests and their society shows the first signs of rituals and burial ceremonies. This is the story behind the sound made by Stix.

Initiation by stixo

Despite its purely electronic nature, the EP has a really organic and fuzzy feel. Interesting rhythmic structures and atmospheres are surprisingly satisfying for a first release. Sometimes some deeper arrangement of the tracks themselves is missing, but it is easy to get lost in the music when you don’t focus enough. Overall, Subspecies is a good start for a complete beginner in the field of music, and has got the potential to evolve and possibly overgrow even Stix’s visual work.

Listen to the EP or get it for free from Subspecies’s bandcamp:

by Andrej

The beginning of a song can preclude whether it will be carved into my sonic memory or whether my musical consciousness will bin the said tones forever. 5 seconds is a minuscule amount of time for a composition to unleash, a nano teaser of what is to come, or not. Sometimes the beginning fails to live up to its promise, sometimes its the complete opposite.

Crime:Scene Compilation 13 “dark and weird music from the Balkan region in Europe” is the latest compilation of the label crime:scene, focused on the darker echelons of electronic music from the ex Yugoslav region.

“For the time being, we’re doing a compilation every 3 months, it’s always different. Some compilations are regular, some have a subject, and some are cover/remix compilations. Compilations are not our main interest though - we release only underground and alternative bands from ex-Yugoslavia region,” says Mihajlo Obrenov, chief inquisitor from crime:scene records.