Ibiza Voice :: The Blog

 Artist/Title: GAISER | BLANK FADE

In a genre where artists often struggle for identity, Jon Gaiser is one of those rare producers whose sound is instantly recognisable. The solo projects, collaborations and remixes he’s created over the course of his output on Minus, all contain a very specific signature to the point where his tracks come alive, communicating in a language that speaks with the strangest, most intoxicating of tongues.

His highly anticipated debut album, Blank Fade, is no exception, and  it sees him pushing the envelope even further resulting in the most comprehensive and impressive body of work he has accomplished so far. Alongside this he has taken full advantage of the vinyl, digital and CD formats on offer to not only produce a collection of stunning individual tracks but also to mix them together in a way that typically reflects his live performance. The body of the tracks remain the same but Gaiser works the seamless transitions to the max by extending the intros and outros to reproduce those magical live moments when a third place momentarily slips into view. In doing so he has created an experience where the whole piece becomes greater than the sum of the parts.

Blank Fade represents a mixture of tried and tested ideas generated on the road (such as the show-stopping first single Trunkated) and new material written during Minus’ 10 weeks of silence. The main premise for the album is to start in one place and end up in another without realising and seeing how Gaiser’s music works like a soundtrack to some hidden nocturnal habitat, full of weird and wonderful creatures that stalk the darkness, it’s not long before we’re lost in the forest of his imagination.

Eerie and atmospheric, Volve sets the scene perfectly, drifting amid a wash of distant echoes and ghostly EFX before a solitary kick drum punctures the darkness. Face Down continues the theme, gradually picking up the pace as the beats begin alternating around a tight, metronomic snare. A pulsing sub bass loop carries the groove while abstract vocal cut-ups penetrate deep into the subconscious. With a perfectly executed mix, Ground effortlessly switches to a 4/4 kick pattern as Gaiser slowly turns the screw, continuing the unearthly vocal theme against a sparse backdrop of crackling electricity and metallic drones. Suddenly we’re in classic territory as Ciliate With lets fly with a trademark bass riff that’s soon joined by one of those memorable bleeping call and response riffs that could only ever be the work of Gaiser.

Whether Or Not maintains the tension with an equally urgent bass line and a brutal snare that powers head first into a swarm of warping synth lines, before Substance B turns in a percussive frenzy that’s as devastating as it is intuitive and will create absolute mayhem on the dance floor. The CD overlap into Comma, Fade is as good as they get, ushering in a more subliminal groove driven by a funked up bass/organ riff and cantering percussion, while Leave It dims the lights once again with pitched down vocals and distant, drifting sirens that add a hint of menace to the mix.

This all sets things up perfectly for Trunkated - a real powerhouse of a track, that’s as complete as anything you’re likely to hear this year. Every element is honed to perfection from the molten bass to the irresistible percussion parts, from the mischievous, dancing bleeps to the twisted synth motif that seems to rip through the delicate fabric of reality. Descending Order then goes into freefall, releasing the pressure value as distant melodies gently eat into your serotonin supply and you lose yourself in the breakdown. One After continues the theme utilising a sliding, bass driven variation of the preceding melody as the beats finally begin to thin out, allowing the slow, ambient drift of Outline to smooth out the fragmented memories of what has gone before and draw things neatly to a close.

Finally, the unmixed digital download album also includes the bonus track Rate 78.17, a beatless exercise in bass manipulation that represents another experimental string to Gaiser’s bow and in doing so, suggests there’s much more to come from this exceptional producer, musician and live performer.

RELEASE INFORMATION:

Artist/Title: GAISER | BLANK FADE
Catalogue No.: M67CD, M67LP
Label:  MINUS

Format:  CD, LP, MP3, WAV
Distribution: Wordandsound / MDM  / Beatport / M-nus.com
Barcode CD: 881390716722
Barcode LP: 881390716760
Release Date: NOVEMBER 17th, 2008
Track Listing:
CD:

01. Volve (4:15)
02. Face Down (4:10)
03. Ground (3:42)
04. Ciliate With (5:29) (CD + Digital Only)
05. Whether Or Not (4:10) (CD + Digital Only)
06. Substance B (4:53)
07. Comma, Fade (6:27)
08. Leave It (5:43)
09. Trunkated (8:07)
10. Descending Order (6:59)
11. One After (6:30)
12. Outline (5:13) (CD + Digital Only)

LP:
A1. Leave It (6:19)
A2. Substance B (6:22)
B1. Ground  (5:30)
B2. Comma, Fade  (6:59)
C. Descending Order  (8:19)
D1. One After (6:43)
D2. Volve  (4:50)
Digital Bonus Track: Rate 78.17  (6:00)

GAISER ON TOUR:    

19.09.08 MINUS @ Industrial Copera, Granada/Spain

20.09.08 Red Bull Music Academy presenta Minus Special @ B.A.M., Barcelona/Spain

27.09.08 N.A.M.E. Festival, Lille/France

02.10.08 MINUS @ CENTRUM, Erfurt/Germany

04.10.08 Fundbüro, Hamburg/Germany

10.10.08 TBA, Sofia/Bulgaria

11.10.08 CONTAKT @ Columbiahalle, Berlin/Germany

16.10.08 MINUS @ The Warehouse, Manchester/UK

17.10.08 CONTAKT @ s.e.one London/UK

24.10.08 MINUS @ Cocoon Club, Frankfurt/Germany

25.10.08 CONTAKT @ The Sand, Amsterdam/Netherlands

31.10.08 CONTAKT @ Palazzo Dei Congressi, Rome/Italy

01.11.08 Shine, Belfast/Ireland

15.11.08 CONTAKT @ I Love Techno, Gent/ Belgium

21.11.08 High V, Zurich/Switzerland

22.11.08 Blent, Athens/Greece

“Never say never,” goes the old phrase, but Marcin Czubala might see it differently.

For Marcin, never is a state of mind-not the site of the unthinkable but a space for alternate possibilities, imaginative leaps and unfamiliar physics. Chronicles of Never is a report back from Marcin’s personal otherworlds, a collection of postcards from a fleeting place.

Marcin Czubala ‘Chronicles of Never’
Released: October 2008
mobilee Records
 
Tracklisting:
1. Daybreak
2. Berolina
3. Los Companeros
4. Pravda
5. Alibi Room
6. Dazed And Confused
7. Spectacles For Humans
8. 30th May
9. At The Beach In San Foca
10. Be Water

There are those that say that house and techno are “singles genres,” that they don’t lend themselves to the album format. To the long list of albums that prove those critics wrong, add Chronicles of Never. Marcin’s first album for mobilee-and in fact his first full-length since 2001, despite dozens of singles over the years-is not just a collection of dance tracks. While remaining faithful to an undeniable physical impulse, Marcin has granted himself uncommonly free rein to explore every corner of his psyche, with results running from the unburdened to the manic, from the sensual to the spaced-out. They all flow together like the colors of the spectrum, emotional states bleeding into others in tracks that twist and turn as imperceptibly as the moments of a long night out.

The album’s cohesive sense of freedom stems in large part to the way it was recorded, over a span of seven or eight months in which Marcin liberated himself from pressures and deadlines. Certain sounds and motifs occur and reoccur-muted hand drums, faraway voices, gleaming keyboards and dusty syncopations. But despite a certain consistency of mood-there’s something hushed about Marcin’s
music, even at its most intense-every track invents its own world and operates according to its own logic. Not the logic of the club, or much less the logic of “minimal,” but a unique atmosphere for each, a unique ecology of sounds adapted specifically to their environment.

“Daybreak” makes for an obvious album opener, incorporating silken, luminous tones and a teasing set of chords; it unfolds as slowly and inexorably as its title would suggest. “Berolina,” the album’s first single, is all stoned seduction and weightlessness, full of contorted arpeggios, bubbly percussion and a devastatingly sexy female voice whispering sweet nothings in the listener’s ear. Of the title, Marcin
reveals that Berolina was the train connecting his city with Berlin, and thus “my first contact with the city, people, clubs and music.” You can hear that youthful sense of expectation and uncertainty in every sultry, slightly creepy phrase.

“Los Compañeros,” inspired by Marcin’s first tour of Mexico, is one of the album’s stand-out club tracks, propelled by economical percussion and insistent looped vocals; halfway through, queasy keyboards fill the soundfield, making this one of the eeriest club hits of the year. “Pravda” is more upbeat, full of bright, glassy percussion with just the right degree of swing. But even here there’s a smidgen of dread, a subconscious sense of unease that comes to the fore when a voice intones, “You can’t trust anyone.”

What on earth is an “Alibi Room”? Judging by the course of this 11-minute track, the album’s centerpiece, it’s a place where fantastic narratives are spun, where reality is turned inside out. Accordingly, the song feels like a live set in miniature, a kind of short story that moves from chapter to chapter-from a dryly percussive intro to a curious breakdown in which an acoustic bass roams freely in a kind of reverie, and finally closing out with four minutes of nostalgic harpsichord. It’s hard to say what exactly took place in the alibi room, but there’s no doubt that you emerge different than you were before entering.

“Dazed & Confused” offers the listener a chance to work all the doubt out of his or her system: it’s a savvy exercise in focused, minimalist funk, with lots of tiny acoustic drum samples scattering like drops of water on a hot skillet. “Spectacles for Humans” takes a similar rhythmic idea and drapes it in jewel-like synthesizer tones. Echoes of Detroit resound in the warm strings that swell in the background. This is
another daybreak track, but it hangs in the balance between the promise of a new day and the last contemplation of time past. “30 May 2007″ expresses a similar sort of ambivalence, a hallmark of Marcin’s very personal approach to music. Named in honor of the birth of his son, it is on the surface a celebratory track-but odd detunings and frantic arpeggios suggest the unease that invariably comes with fatherhood. It’s a leap into dark water.

The album closes out with two of Marcin’s deepest tracks to date. “At the Beach in San Foca”-named in homage to the place where he first debuted the track, and which subsequently went mad-is a slow, controlled burn that periodically flares up in the form of muted horns and panned, echoing voices. Sweeping filters and syncopated piano chords push the track ever forward, while a deep sub-bass
grounds it firmly in the now. Finally, “Be Water” slows down and practices what it preaches, sending sampled percussion and xylophone tones into a winding current that’s tugged at by eddying chords; it’s a liberating finale to an album that’s all about finding one’s freedom.

“The advantage of electronic music is its freedom from interpretation,” says Marcin. “I’m not giving you a painting, just the brush and the paints. Chronicles of Never is the chronicle of an imaginary place. Your place.”

www.mobilee-records.de/marcin-czubala
www.marcinczubala.com
www.myspace.com/marcinczubala

Since the official release of Ellen Allien’s album “SooL” (BPC175), everybody knows the catchy hookline of the track “Elphine”.

Visitors with regular attendance on the BPitch Control homepage couldn’t miss it. With catalogue number BPC181 “Elphine” is now available as 12″.

BPitch Control artists Zander VT and the American Troy

Pierce purify this track with their special Remixes. Three big names in the business. And as a result: three guarantors for musical highlights - mady by BPitch Control.

A1: Elphine

As a constant part of various Radio and DJ Playlists worldwide, “Elphine” is creeping into your subconsciousness in a frisky way and produces positive energy. So make sure your aerials are on reception and your controllers on maximum position.

A2: Elphine (Zander VT Remix)

It was a quiet time for Zander VT lately, but with their new remix (as well as an upcoming 12″ on BPitch Control) the two Berlin based DJs and producers are back with an impressive sign of live and deliver a delicious work on here. The characteristic

“Elphine” hook crosses the whole remix theme and pushes the audience straight on the dancefloor.

B: Elphine (Troy’s One Eyed JAK Remix)

These days, the american-born Troy Pierce lives in the german capital Berlin. Constantly creating big furore with his releases on Richie Hawtin’s label M_nus, Mr. Pierce has put his magic fingers on Ellen Allien’s track “Elphine” - the result is a unique remix, pushed by an impulsive bassline and the new arranged vocals, taken from the Original.

****

Digital Exclusive via Beatport: Elphine (Louderbach Remix)
Tracklisting:
A1: Elphine
A2: Elphine (Zander VT Remix)
B: Elphine (Troy Pierce One Eyed JAK Remix)
Digital Exclusive: Elphine (Louderbach Remix)
RELEASE: 18.08.2008
FORMAT: 12”
CAT NR.: BPC 181
DISTRIBUTED BY KOMPAKT / FINETUNES

www.bpitchcontrol.de

Sharam’s hugely anticipated WMC and summer anthem “Get Wild” is out with a massive remix by none other than mister Steve Angello.

Already a staple of Pete Tong’s Essential New Tunes and gracing the decks of Seb Fontaine, Eric Morillo, David Guetta, Sander Kleinenberg, Roger Sanchez, Axwell, Steve Angello/Sebastian Ingrosso, Cedric Gervais, Mark Knight, & Felix Da Housecat.

…this is the summer gem we’ve all been waiting for…
“The hottest tune from way back in Miami is here!” - #1 DMC Buzz Charts
#3 on Beatport.com

“WMC Essential Miami Tune” - Radio 1

CLICK HERE