Endless Illusion is a Prague-based collective which has been exploring various forms of analogue sound through genres like minimal wave, electro, acid and techno. Aside from organising events and a radio show on the respected Dutch radio Intergalactic FM, they also release music – the current under an eponymous name and historical under the moniker Jupiter08.
Published May, 2017
Genot Centre is one of the latest additions to the thriving tape label scene. As has become typical for this medium and its milieu, their output is eclecitc, ranging from drone to footwork.
Published June, 2016
Meteorismo is a Prague-based label which explores a so-called invisible scene. It sources obscure recordings from various remote areas – both musical and geographical.
Published April, 2016
Molly’s debut on the Czech DIY label Stoned To Death Records is a bona fide journey into the world of synthetic sounds - with plenty of noodling, twisting and tweaking, filtering and arpeggio(ing). No wonder one of the tags on his Bandcamp album page is John Carpenter, the legendary synthaholic.
Published October, 2015
There’s something primordial about noise. The rawness and unhindered ways of sound, the sound almost hijacking its maker and using him or her as its medium.
Published September, 2015
When I first heard Střed Světa - after his friend sent us his demos - I was on a train embarking on another monotonous ride through picturesque environs of the Czech and Slovak landscapes - from valleys and plains of Southern Slovakia to the green hills, woods, flickers of sunshine and small industrial towns of the Czech Republic, passing by like flickers of visual hallucination. It was probably sometime in 2011.
Published May, 2015
The idea to release a split came from ◊►≈ sometimes in the sumer of last year. It was a good challenge for us because we had just bought a synth few months prior to that and started to work on new material.
Published March, 2015
Two idiosyncratic compilations/mixtapes have come to light at the murky period of the end of the year, perhaps - unjustly - lost amid the glitzy xmess lights and bonhomie. Both are authored by one of the most intriguing personas of the Czech experimental music scene Jára Tarnovski.
Published January, 2015
Saturated media ecologies. Hypermediated economy of attention.
Published October, 2014
Whereas in his other project, Lightning Glove, the sense of urgency and pervasive feeling of impending omen, was created largely via the lyrics of his brother, the editor of one of the few proudly modern left-wing Czech magazines A2larm Jan, Ondřej makes a statement on his new solo record via the sonic. Apart from the anodyne “This is an emergency” sample in the second track, though the rolling bass professes this with heightened sense of paranoia.
Published September, 2014
Transient Zones is a festival that took place earlier this year in Prague. Over a few days, a group of artists moved and shifted from one location to another, creating temporary autonomous microzones of sound, reclaiming the public space for a brief moment from its functionalist nature - a space to shift from the 9-5 to shop or sleep, a sonic détournement.
Published September, 2014
Laura Luna de Castillo is a Mexican multimedia artist living in Prague. Composing tracks and working with sound are her means of bringing forth imaginary atmospheres.
Published August, 2014
More than a year after the EP of the Foma duo, the Czech electronic label Ressonus, which usually does so on a sporadic basis though always accompanied with carefully prepared limited edition CD and download artefacts, announced a new release. Coinciding with the straightforward techno-industrial record of the American project The Agromaniac, which was inspired by Harlan Ellison’s post-apocalyptic novella “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”, is also the new material of Selectone, a project of the label head David Rambousek, whose history dates back to 2004 and the Mufonic imprint.
Published August, 2014
There is a quality to live music that often is lacking from bedroom or studio recordings. The slow, meandering build up, in anticipation of the climax (or anticlimax), the getting-lost-in-music, and the consensual surrender to the sonic mind-alteration.
Published July, 2014
Brno, the second city of Czech Republic, has seen a gradual upsurge in underground sonic activities, aided by its ample student populace - both at the art and technical universities - resulting in a very interesting mix where art and technology come to each other’s service. The crew behind the DIY Arduino-based instrument Standuino is based there, now busy with the increasingly successful Bastl Instruments, who, coincidentally, also lent its support to the latest Brno electronic export - the label Bukko Tapes.
Published June, 2014
What is a sound of a country? House, techno, folk, trap, rap, hip hop or jazz? Of course, such simplistic generalisations are superfluous, though it is still interesting to hear what a certain group of musicians from a certain geographical context might produce, influenced - either consciously or subliminally - by the surroundings (or is this plain determinism)? Of course, we are not talking about Eurovision type of national/istic trite, but genuine music created at a certain time, in a certain place. The new compilation entitled simply and boldly as !CZECH2, presents the up-and-coming producers based in the Czech Republic (there is also a Mexican and an American artist both based in Prague included).
Published May, 2014
Is the no-input technique getting so popular in the Czech and Slovak Republics? Definitely not, but this compilation can give you the false impression that this may as well be true. Still, the contributors here are worth your attention and it would be a shame not to mention this release out now on the Czech netlabel Signals from Arkaim.
Published May, 2014
Prague has had a fairly thriving minimal/synth wave scene in the last couple of years, mirroring the upsurge of interest in forgotten obscurities created on primitive equipment in Western European countries such as Germany, Belgium or France in the 1980s, packed and polished for 21st century listeners by labels like Minimal Wave. Jan Jiskra aka Moduretik has made music since 2001.
Published April, 2014
Zdeněk Liška is one of the most significant Czech film composers, his electronic and electro-acoustic compositions finding its visual accompaniments - for his film scores are not secondary to its filmic coupling - in the Czech New Wave or for films of Jan Švankmajer. Eerie and surreal, his sound work create an extra layer, an autonomous sonic universe, that is almost a synaesthetic radio play, dispensing with the need for images, and at the same time reinforcing them in the imagination of the listener.
Published March, 2014
Phaerentz is a solo project of Petr Ferenc, a Czech music journalist and musician, renowned mostly for his hauntological project Birds Build Nests Underground. His latest release is simply entitled III, and this descriptive minimalism is also an encapsulation of this project - no frills, the focus is placed on sound, in an almost acousmatic way.
Published March, 2014
Once again, as the old year meets the new, we are looking back on the musical happenings. The first one is by Anek from the Cáry Mlhy blog from Prague who will offer his insights and highlights of 2013 on the Czech underground music scene.
Published January, 2014
Every week on Wednesday Czech Radio’s Wave station, we try to present a project, label, in a short interview format. Our show Východiska (you can check the archive of the show here) aims to map the latest happenings on the independent music scene in Central and Eastern Europe.
Published December, 2013
The unpredictability of the ‘no-input’ technique is one of the most intriguing things that you can come across when playing with your mixing board. And the worse the mixing desk, the better the feedback that your 'instrument’ can produce.
Published December, 2013
Signals From Arkaim is a Prague-based imprint, following in the footsteps of CC-licensed, virtually existent releases of the once thriving netlabel scene. They mostly focus on uncompromising fringes of the experimental underground, but also have such releases as the noteworthy mixtape consisting of soundbytes from Czechoslovak TV series.
Published December, 2013
Martin Blažíček is a Prague born film/video maker and media artist active since 2000, either solo or as a part of various groups. Michal Zbořil makes electronic music with a focus on oscillating synthesized sound textures and has been part of several groups as well.
Published December, 2013
Red For Color Blind by Easterndaze on Mixcloud The podcast created by the makers of the Red For Colour Blind blog, which is dedicated to an “invisible scene”, gathers various projects from the fringes of the Prague post-noise underground, mainly associated with the label and DIY collective KLaNGundKRaCH, which, coincidentally celebrates its 6th anniversary this November. Aside from Czech producers and ensembles, it also features foreigners active on the scene including Core of the Coalman or Romano Krzych.
Published November, 2013
Published November, 2013
The internet made it possible for every user to distribute his or hers music in quite a democratic way, while the development of mobile phones, computers and all of those cross-overs made it possible for everyone to make his or hers own musical recording - even if it’s recorded with poor microphones on a cellphone by someone who doesn’t know shit about music. Take these two things together, and what you have is a sort of minor music revolution.
Published November, 2013
The Exterritory compilation series strives to present the best up-and-coming music from Central Europe - Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, aka the V4. It is the third installment of the annual sonic list, focusing mostly on electronics and new forms of the aural underground.
Published September, 2013
The period between 1967 and 1993 in the former Czechoslovakia was marked by ominous atmosphere that pervaded the society following the Prague Spring of 1968, manifested through the so-called Normalization. One of the tools of the regime was censorship of the media, thus, lot of creators either had to completely cease working in their chosen artistic field, or channel their creativity through allegories.
Published July, 2013
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.
Published May, 2013
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.
Published March, 2013
Ondřej Hlaváč, a music journalist and a blogger, has put together a compilation, a mix that documents the current state of idiosyncratic Czech underground music, merging varius subcultures and communities, which is downloadable from his blog Freakshow. From cosmic compositions, through Suicide-sounding desolate atmospherics, doom pop and beyond.
Published January, 2013
After having travelled half of /the eastern/ part of Europe over the last two or three years, and meeting and discovering amazing music, we have decided we want to make it heard, loud and physical. Thus, we are delving into the label game, with a simple aim - expose music that somehow stands out through idiosyncratic existence.
Published January, 2013
I suppose only a few of the readers of Easterndaze have heard of the Silesian label Mama Mrdá Maso and only a miniscule amount of them would have made it through any of their records released before April 2012. That’s the point in time, when the MMM label released its breakthrough record, the debut LP Peklo, Peklo, Ráj by the band Planety.
Published July, 2012
One year after releasing his debut as the now discontinued witchhousey project TEMPELHOF, the Czech musician Tomáš Kopáček returns to his song-writing roots. His new project Black Tar Jesus seemingly continues in the vein of Kopáček’s former production - the dreamy and nostalgic lo-fi pop released under the name of Mon Insomnie.
Published June, 2012
Jakub Adamec is an artist and member of the bacchanalian Silesian band I Love 69 Popgeju and his solo album bears the stamp of his main musical occupation. An opulent, cacophonic sonic puzzle made of manipulated soundtracks originally created for his videos.
Published June, 2012
The last work of the czech art collective RAFANI known for its politically and socially oriented actions is a 82-minutes long documentary 31 Endings / 31 Beginnings. Composed as a “city symphony” it features representants of Prague’s artistic or intellectual scenes as well as still lifes of the city’s landscape in 31 short parts, that deal with a “tangle of various relations on the axis between “the centre and the periphery””.
Published June, 2012
The burgeoning Prague-based label Landmine Alert has just released the debut LP of its most idiosyncratic band to date - Vložte Kočku. The LP titled Táta is composed of 7 songs that incorporate elements of postrock, hard-core, electronica, hiphop and spoken word into a very perplexing and multifacetted sound (using electronic violin instead of a guitar), that is at the same time utterly unique in the Czech scene and also very typical in some respect (considering the vocal delivery style common for a plethora of Czech bands).
Published March, 2012
A new compilation by Strefa Szarej, a label and a cultural organisation run out of Cieszyn in Poland near the Czech border tries to reflect the music production of the country’s neighbouring countries - Czech Republic and Slovakia (and even Hungary). Genre-wise, the focus is of course on the fringes of the music production of the respective countries (otherwise we wouldn’t be writing about it:), but it varies from weirdo electronic (notably miss Dolly Rambo, Hungary’s foremost art bruteish pop star) through post-dance through psychedelic and mellow at the end with Fuka Lata, Sangoplasmo’s Lutto Lento and their epic 17-minute track, Grobbing Thristle and their haunting ode, I Love 69 Popgeju, Moduretik, Stroon, Piča z Hoven, IP (Identity Problem) or Dead Janitor.
Published March, 2012
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.
Published February, 2012
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.
Published January, 2012
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.
Published January, 2012
Another of our 2011 recaps this time with acclaimed Czech journalist and writer Karel Veselý, author and editor of books including Hudba ohně (Fire Music: Radical Black Music From Jazz to Hip Hop and Beyond) and Kmeny. What’s the highlight for you in Czech Republic’s music scene?It’s nice to see people doing their own thing without the support from the big labels and also defying expectations from their fans.
Published January, 2012
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.
Published December, 2011
Czech project Sky to Speak consists of Matej Kotoucek, in charge of the music, and Ondrej Synacek, who takes care of the visuals. They create their almost sentimental sound from sampling old and obscure videotapes and artists’ records and visuals.
Published November, 2011
Czech Rep.’s favourite art pranksters and northern Moravia heroes I Love 69 Popgeju have a new remix album out.
Published October, 2011
Another live set recorded at Easterndaze vs. Uši & Vitr night at Boro club in Brno that we did on 6 October, 2011.
Published October, 2011
Few months after his previous release Komplex (read our feature here), the Prague-based Moduretik is back with an album called Fantas. On his latest release, he further delves into minimal-wave territory with his bleak atmospherics and cold-blooded electronic music.
Published October, 2011
One of our radio outputs apart from ocasional shows for Habitat.fm and even more sporadic production-in-the-making for Resonance FM is the weekly feature Vychodiska at the czech Radio Wave.
Published October, 2011
A live rendition of Waterfal a track by our friends Fuka Lata from Warsaw, as recorded at our Easterndaze meets Uši a Vítr gig at the Boro Club in Brno, Czech Republic on 6 October 2011.
Published October, 2011
Spontaneity in live music is what makes it all exciting. Thursday 6 October 2011, Brno, Czech Republic.
Published October, 2011
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Published October, 2011
Brno’s electronic underground has plunged into a sort of hiatus after “years of glory” when the artists/promoter’s collective/netlabel Chernobyl Musick organised the legendary Heavy Mental parties, and the Fleda Club was one of the leading venues for cutting edge music in the Czech Republic. The recent personal changes in Fleda, as well as several key players entering “real life” or moving away from Brno made it look like the ‘scene’ has been terminated.
Published August, 2011
Two off-kilter illustrated videos by two of the most idiosyncratic Czech bands at the moment. I Love 69 Popgeju are art graduates from Moravia’s “Sheffield” - the industrial Ostrava which has a sprawling music and arts scene.
Published August, 2011
There’s nothing like a dose of existential witch house, made in the darkest corners of Eastern Bloc, to get through a sweltering summer’s day. Tempelhof’s self-titled debut is out now on Prague’s AM Discs.
Published July, 2011
Synaptik aka Josef Šobra from Prague is fond of field recordings (cat purring, deranged female moans, urban sonics) and various samples such as speeches by Communist nomenclature. His almost esoteric aural creations often accompany live visuals.
Published July, 2011
A new EP by Slovak producer Teapot is due out in July on the Czech label Eclectica with remixes by Slovakia’s prime wonky/post-dubstep producers Stratasoul and Stroon and the Czech producer Blue. Here is a small preview of what to expect: Unrest II [teaser] by _teapot_ ps.
Published June, 2011
The brand new imprint alice mange son coeur is a truly modern label. It operates from Prague and is run by the young Sara Cross who A&R’d the label roster from her bedroom via Last.
Published June, 2011
Moravia with Brno as its hub had a thriving musical underground scene in the eighties, a unique sonic microcosm of various projects, bands and personalities. Some of the most important bands of the Brno scene were foremostly Dunaj, but also other less renowned projects such as E, Happyend, Odvážní bobříci, Ošklid, Ještě jsme se nedohodli, Podchodem vchod, Z kopce.
Published June, 2011
Czech producer Moimir Papalescu is one of the most active on the scene with his numerous aliases such as non-existing electroclash band Moimir Papalescu and the Nihilists, legendary EBM project Vanessa, Magnetik or Die Alten Machinen a collaboration with Devo’s Gerald Casal. His latest project is Dioda Boy.
Published June, 2011
The Prague-based duo Reverend Dick has a penchant for second hand analogue synthetizers which they find in thrift stores and waste dumps. The two members of the project – Richard Bakeš and Daniel Vlček – are also visual artists and members of the activist art collective Groupe Guma Guar.
Published May, 2011
The Prague-based artist Ondřej Holý, working under his nom de plume dné, features on our sampler. He also has an EP Talking With Crayons and a casette out on AM Discs Eating a Wrapper Instead of a Candy.
Published May, 2011
The Prague-based Sperm Festival is an annual showcase of electronic music. Since 2006 it has brought the likes of Dan Deacon or Mouse on Mars to the Czech Republic.
Published April, 2011
Moduretik is a 24 year old musician from Prague. He started producing in 2001 with stints in experimental/IDM duo Moon Projekt and screamo/hc band Kill! Kill! Kids! Subsequently he went on a solo path, releasing several albumsthat saw him experiment with IDM/ambient and buoyant 8 BIT sounds and samples from Czechoslovak comedies.
Published March, 2011
A backlog of new tracks and releases from the Eastern front… this time focusing on fresh labels and electronic producers from the former Czecho-Slovakia. If you happen to be cooking up some good stuff, drop it at our Soundcloud.
Published January, 2011
Our project will culminate with the compilation which is gonna be out vv soon on the Polish label Audiotong featuring some of our favourite tracks by musicians we met on our East European journey. In the meantime, get lost in Slovak artist Jarmila Mitrikova’s psychedelic cover.
Published December, 2010
First of the three nights presenting the most interesting musicians we came across during our travels will unleash soon in Bratislava! On Thursday, 18 November 2010, our handpicked guests will play you some nice songs, or massacre them:) The Slovak electronic scene will be represented by the drone-ambient project CASI CADA MINUTO, opening the show up with his cinematic melange of drony tape manipulation. Czech songwriter DNÉ follows in a similar sonic territory as Teen Daze’s Two Bicycles, performing a dreamy and intimate drone-folk set spiced-up with his definition of “chillwave”.
Published October, 2010
Our half-a-year mission commenced - fittingly - in our homeland (which is not to imply we were biased in any way to this tiny piece of land in Eastern, or as the locals would want you to say, Central Europe). Slovakia, the smaller and - some say poorer - brother of Czech Republic, has experienced a continuous exodus of “brains” brains since the 19th century.
Published July, 2010