Boulder, Colorado producer and sound artist Radere (aka Carl Ritger) graces us with his third exceptional basic_sounds release, A Pouring Out of Sleep. Radere’s works have also appeared on Rural Colours, Moodgadget, Futuresequence and Full Spectrum Records, among others.

Eschewing his signature processed guitar loops in favor of analog synthesis techniques, A Pouring Out of Sleep finds Radere diving headlong into new aural terrain in preparation for his upcoming tour with Andrew Weathers in June.

Clocking in at just over twenty minutes, A Pouring Out of Sleep is a journey into the darker side of his catalog, exploring nocturnal ambience and immersive textures that culminates with a clattering din of analog pulses and raw-edged feedback before dissolving into a warm pool of haunting drones.

This epic soundscape is not to be missed. Overall, a masterpiece in organic, artful gloom.

Mastered by Seth Chrisman.

A Pouring Out Of Sleep

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Gunshae (pronounced Gun-shai) is the Panambient project of Canadian dubstep pioneer, Kuma and renowned oboist and DJ, Lady Eve. Together they combine classical training with live improvisation and electronics.

Tossing aside classical music’s obsession with adherence to the written score and live electronic performance’s stereotype of one guy behind a laptop checking his email, both members of Gunshae have been known to start the show on stage and finish up in the audience. Gunshae are not your average sound art duo or ambient performance act.

Breaking down barriers between audience and performer, Gunshae is as happy in the chill out room as it is the art gallery or concert hall. Each performance is completely unique, site/audience specific and completely devoted to embracing the moment.

“Begin Again” was originally performed and recorded at the Panambient Siesta in Cancun, Mexico, November 16th, 2012. For basic_sounds, Lady Eve has taken the original recording and layered it with brand new live instrumentation, creating something entirely unique. basic_sounds is delighted to share this 78 minute artistic, dub ambient journey. Enjoy!

Begin Again (Segunda Caida Dub)

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www.thekonspiracygroup.com | www.facebook.com/gunshae

Toronto based producer Co-Op (aka Oreste Camarra) is known for his innovative groove-based house tracks. His free form live performances and in-the-moment jam sessions involving a number of Co-Op contributors, transforms into becoming well executed, polished house voyages. Oreste’s lush brand of house develops slowly and reflects the eclectic and elastic nature of Co-Op.

“Sia’s Guitar” is driven by submerged chords, infectious guitar riffs, and well-timed hand claps, ultimately creating a lush unhurried house number that slowly gets better with each bar. “This Machine Kills Fascists” is a Western chill swagger with vocal samples by American folk musician Woody Guthrie, known primarily for his political songs. Guthrie often performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists exhibited on his guitar, hence the title of this EP. Closing the release is “We Have the Technology?” a fluid layered organic percussion journey with light gliding ambience. Overall, Oreste’s slow-brewing excursions and mixing techniques provides an essential taste of chill refined house.

Co-Op contributors on this release include David Cowan, Sia Gee, Kelvin Ku, Johnny Lawrence, and Karim Sultan.

Sia’s Guitar
This Machine Kills Fascists
We Have The Technology?

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www.facebook.com/co-op

Montréal based producer, Pimilk (aka Mark G.) is known for his synthesizer based releases on Pertin_nce and En:peg Digital. After a brief hiatus, to pursue his PhD in Math and Computer Science, Pimilk returns a few years later with Glittery Upper World, a more organic sounding output for basic_sounds.

Glittery Upper World opens with “Moon Dust,” a pulsing dub swagger, ideal for chill evenings at home. “Oxygen,” bleeps, clicks and sputters over warm soft pads and floating ambience. Clever rhythmic intricacies ping-pong around for the ultimate mind dance. “Ant Nets” is a sculpted textural journey of rich fuzzy melodies combined with dubby delays. “Swamp Chocolate” is a micro ambient track with disorienting percussion patterns. Closing the EP is “Genesis,” a spanning organic ambient voyage with cracking deep textures, sparse rhythmic freeform pulses overtop a translucent sheet of white noise. Overall an impressive warm dubby digital dream.

Moon Dust
Oxygen
Ant Nets
Swamp Chocolate
Genesis

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Special thanks to Eliot Britton

basic_sounds is honoured to host something out of the ordinary by prolific American composer, Will Thomas Long (aka Celer). Now located in Japan, Will delivers Luxury Centre an 11 day installation outside the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. The piece took place inside the interior of the Nagagin Capsule Tower (a sample capsule designed by Kisho Kurokawa) as part of the Metabolism: The City of the Future – Dream and Visions of Reconstruction in Pastwar and Present-Day Japan.

Hidden inside the cabinets of the capsule walls, the music was created from a 1963 edition of Johann Sebastian Bach on reel-to-reel tape, cut into sections at random, and then looped on an endless-delay system between 3 reel-to-reel machines, each loop lasting for one whole day.

The manipulated looping is chillingly beautiful while creating an eerie sense of past. Luxury Centre is one of Will’s more accessible albums to listen to musically, but will trigger your psyche in unusual and haunting ways.

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
11th

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www.thesingularwe.org

Polish sound artist Fischerle (aka Mateusz Wysocki) primarily known for his dub techno explorations demonstrates his mastery as a producer, by delivering two exquisite but completely different genres incorporating the same warm evolving beauty. Fischerle has appeared on such labels as, Qunabu, Instabil, Minicromusic, Ghostmental, Entropy and runs his own successful netlabel Pawlacz Perski Tapes.

His basic_sounds release Delayed Childhood opens with “Index of Clouds” a drifting dub track with warm soothing waves layered with clean clicks and crackles for a deep tranquil organic dub journey. “The Mote Hunted Down In Telegraph Hill, San Francisco” is a beautiful eighteen-minute gentle ambient soundscape with perfected looping washes and delicate sparse percussion drones for a really lovely calming peaceful meditation. Overall a sublime and gorgeous release.

Index Of Clouds
The Mote Hunted Down In Telegraph Hill, San Francisco

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www.soundcloud.com

Photo by Justyna Kociszewska

Prolific Finnish producer Teemu T honours basic_sounds with his exceptional release Equanimity. Teemu T has been creating deep dub techno soundscapes for well over two decades with releases on Pohjola, Instabil, Bio-mechanics, Zooloft, Carmarage, ZeECc, Quadrant Recordings and his most recent full-length album Entheoform on Confineless.

Equanimity opens up with “Elsewhere” a dreamy dense atmospheric dub journey with reverberating pads combined with a deep pulsing bassline to tie it all together. The self-titled track “Equanimity” is a contemplative subtle drifting eight-minute dub voyage alluding to feelings of floating. Reflective yet propulsive, for the ultimate dreamscape. “Essence of Noise” closes the EP with an endless reverberating bounce of layered echo chords drenched in soft white washing textures. Overall a sublime configuration of airy chords, beautiful deep textures and pulsing beats, a stunning absorbing recipe.

Elsewhere
Equanimity
Essence of Noises

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www.soundcloud.com

Spanish producer and videographer José Barrera releases his magnificent EP Diffuse on basic_sounds. Known for being an industrial engineer by trade, Barrera’s passion lies in creating dark ambient drones with deep immersive basslines. He originally started composing in 2004 after purchasing his first synthesizer and later became invested with the Monome community, contributing to several compilations organized by other Monome users. He also has appeared on Mischieveous Musique, Drift Deeper and supplied audio accompaniment to a contemporary dance performance. His self-released albums are available for download from his bandcamp page.


Diffuse opens with “Fire Oscillator,” a densely thick immersive work with contemplative floating strings, crackling gurgles and deep organic bass similar to an internal rhythmic heart pulse. “Double Exposure,” is a lush, drifting dub techno gem that gains more depth through its pulsing signals and airy layered chords. “Mirror Reflections” is a dark eerie pulsing track with shuffling sweeps, alluding to feelings of uncertainty. “Oblivion” closes the EP with a twelve-minute long format composition that delicately transforms and glides the listener through a meditative foreign space. Absolutely beautiful and ideal for lovers of Wolfgang Voights’ Gas moniker and all things deep.

Fire Oscillator
Double Exposure
Mirror Reflections
Oblivion

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VIDEO: YouTube | Vimeo

Soundcloud | Bandcamp | Vimeo

Primarily known for his dub techno productions as one half of Overcast Sound, Michael Pettit’s solo alias, Chord combines his deep dub sensibilities with sophisticated explorations into minimal house and techno.

On his exceptional release Year as a Ghost, Chord delivers perfected spatially fractured piano-driven tech-house tracks. The first composition, “Now I Know and I Wish I Never Did” slowly builds into a brooding experimental house track incorporating organic rhythmic percussion sounds, sultry male vocals, piano melodies and flowing strings. “High Catherine” is a gorgeous dubby slow-groove driven by layered drums and gliding atmospheric drifts that gradually evolve under creatively timed vocal snippets. “Lost in the Market” acts as an acoustic interlude by submerging the listener into a virtual space of wonder driven by contemplative atmospheric waves. “The Unsettled” is a beautifully executed track with patiently layered rhythmic percussion beats and warm optimistic rising strings, highlighted with strong piano chords.

Chord cleverly allows the organic beauty of each component to breathe while uniquely constructing them into an infectious, minimal groove that’s sheer genius. basic_sounds netlabel is delighted to celebrate our third anniversary with such a polished and stunning personal offering.

Now I Know and I Wish I Never Did
Strange The Walls
High Catherine
Lost In The Market
The Unsettled
Should Talk
Take You

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REVIEWS: The Letter | MK Orbit | Recent music heroes

www.chord.is

German producer Erich Schall delivers Direction, a follow up to his exceptional 2011 debut album Tröte on Cologne based netlabel, Der Kleine Grüne Würfel. Direction opens with “Outside,” a floating dub groove mixed deep with echoes and light shuffling percussion while subtle hints of a “big band” orchestra haunt the piece throughout. The second composition, “Inside,” appropriates Schall’s dub forms into driving techno relying again on echoing tonal melodies and organic percussive clicks to move the work. The closing number, “Above,” is a wet and dubby journey incorporating eerie spatial sounds and distorted field recordings.

Schall, who also creates music under the pseudonym Alberto Buitony, began his first efforts in electronic music on a keyboard he purchased in a thrift shop. Teaching himself to use the machine – without the benefit of an instruction manual – has shaped the ways in which Schall continues to explore and experiment in making his own music.

Outside
Inside
Above

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www.albertobuitony.org | www.soundcloud.com

Vancouver based techno pioneer Tomas Jirku returns to basic_sounds with his exceptional second release, Moves Like Benes. Since his prestigious gig at Mutek in Montréal last year, Tomas has been performing across his beloved Canada and continues to drop meticulously crafted tracks and EP’s for various outputs ranging from Toronto based boutique label Supesharu to Slovakia’s tech-house output Leporelo and San Francisco’s De’fchild Productions in which he trades remixes with the label’s boss. When he’s not busy in his studio researching the collisions between his favourite yet disparate genres, dub and electro, Tomas balances his technological explorations by fly fishing with his wife in and around beautiful British Columbia.

Tomas likens his approach to the tracks on Moves Like Benes as being comparable to playing a Commodore 64 in a storm sewer, along with all the havoc that sludge would play on the circuitry. The opening track “Breaker Fever” is a quirky bouncing electro techno number that spits and sputters along with reverberating wet flutters, sharp stabs and transistor-powered steel drum melodies. Around the five-minute mark it shifts gears and becomes a punchy dancefloor number with robo-vocals. “A Heart of Glass or A Heart of Stone” is a dubby mechanical techno stomper with sweeping effects, analog gurgles and retro synth sounds, changing again near the end in homage to everyone’s favourite east-end boys. The closing number – the EP’s namesake – is a frantic synth track with concealing layers of reverberation and delay, hopping along to a hint of classic house chords.

You can follow Tomas’s releases, performances and mixes through his riversof.com website, because his prolifically varied output can be otherwise difficult to keep up with.

Breaker Fever
Heart of Glass or a Heart of Stone
Moves Like Benes

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www.riversof.com

Portland based producer Textural Being (aka Sage Taylor) has been composing for well over a decade and has appeared on numerous netlabels specializing in deep and chill electronica. Influenced by the Pacific Northwest, Textural Being’s stylistic approaches vary from deep ambient soundscapes to more immersive dubby techno. His main source of inspiration comes from nature and the rich beauty of his natural environment.

“Les Lucioles” (which translates to “the Fireflies”) is an infectious and grooving dub-techno track that seamlessly incorporates floating textures with deep chugging beats. “Nightshade” is a shimmering and immersive soundscape propelled forward by soft glowing chords, distant floating terrains and pulses. “Paix” closes the release with a hypnotically circulating minimal techno arrangement underpinned with padded bass and lush dub-infected chords.

Les Lucioles
Nightshade
Paix

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www.soundcloud.com

Denver based producer and sound artist offthesky (aka Jason Corder) is known for his reputable list of releases on Resting Bell, Rural Colours, SEM, Hibernate and Home Normal, among others. On this release offthesky embraces the idea of evolution in his artistic process by adopting a completely different approach from his regular methods. Using an old iPod touch as a tracking device and an iPad equipped with various noise and synth apps, Jason delivers two densely textural long-format ambient soundscapes recorded mostly from his time spent in various parks.

“lossless” is a rich twenty-one minute soundscape full of distorted gurgling melodies displaced against a thick grainy atmosphere of static and organic tonalities. Part noise and part ambient, offthesky produces grand waves of rough sonic beauty using eighty-three layers of outdoor recorded material. “RGBwaster” is a dark and hauntingly beautiful epic noise-scape with intense cavernous progressions.

lossless
RGBwaster

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www.offthesky.com | noise.offthesky.com | soundcloud

Dub techno producers Jamie Drouin and Michael Pettit slow things down on their second exceptional basic_sounds release, Commute. Influenced by their travels over the last year, with Pettit presently residing in Holland, the duo masterfully deliver two 20-minute long dubby soundscapes, idyllic for those introspective moments spent on commuter trains. “Westward” is a reflective atmospheric journey with restrained basslines, echoing pads and rhythmic clicks. Organic warm washes and distant crackles gradually evolve within its subtle melodies for an overall calm and contemplative ride. “Eastward” starts off with soft floating melodies combined with dusty beats, airy chords and jazzy shuffling cymbals. Subtle vocals drift throughout the piece and intertwine with reverberating percussions. Both compositions offer a laid back dub voyage that only becomes better with each listen.

Overcast Sound have numerous releases on Silent Season, Thoughtless Music, Rohs Records, Untitled & After, Falk Recordings and Entropy Records. This fall they’ll be reuniting in Berlin.

Westward
Eastward

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REVIEWS: A Strangely Isolated Place | Exclaim

www.overcastsound.com

Recently relocating to Boulder, CO from Philadelphia, Radere (aka Carl Ritger) usually builds dense textural ambient drone soundscapes from heavily filtered guitar loops, utilizing an ever-evolving array of pedals. However, his latest basic_sounds release, The Earth, Laid Bare, showcases a softer and gentler approach for Radere, eschewing the squalls of distortion and white noise that have defined his recent style.

Recorded during a flurry of travel over the past year, Radere found time on planes and in various hotel rooms to manipulate a set of guitar loops he found on his laptop, fraying the original sound source until it began to chime, loop, crackle and ring, creating a delicate dreamscape to blunt his disorientation. Blissfully drifting across the stereo field, The Earth, Laid Bare is a long-format 34-minute composition that bathes the listener in a nostalgic warmth — another gorgeous addition to the basic_sounds catalogue.

The Earth, Laid Bare is the second Radere release for basic_sounds, and follows the success of his recent appearance on FutureSequence, I’ll Make You Quiet. Radere’s works have also appeared on Rural Colours, Moodgadget and Full Spectrum Records, among others.

The Earth, Laid Bare

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Sante Fe based producer Watson (aka Frank Watson Rose) started playing music in 1990 after his mom bought him a guitar. Later picking up the drums, he found rhythm came naturally to him and began constructing his own compositions. Watson draws from a wide range of influences and experiences, from performing in a Seattle grunge band in the mid-90’s to learning west African tribal rhythms. In 2009 he discovered the Monome, which lead him to become the artist he is today. Watson has performed at Communikey in Boulder Colorado, organized Monome tours spanning 8 countries and produced the first Gridfest, a three-day festival bringing together 13 electronic artists from North America to perform and give workshops.

basic_sounds is honoured to feature Watson’s first full-length release Interstices. The album opens with Adsidua, a slow building glitch soundscape incorporating percussion layers, textural crackles and watery gushes creating a calm rhythmic intensity. Allay.Embark is a beautiful and submersive ambient journey with light echoing shuffles, organic field recordings, delicate tones and deep throbbing bass pulses. Foundation starts with twinkling bells that evolve into a full-on synth groove with organic drumming. Overall Watson delivers a stunning first release incorporating inspirations from around the globe.

Adsidua
Allay.Embark
Circles So Perfectly
Finding Resolve
Answer
Everything
Foundation
Forge
Oracle

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VIDEO: Vimeo

REVIEWS: Anti-Gravity Bunny

www.watsonsound.ws

Born in Austria and raised in Switzerland, Alessandro Crimi has always been consumed by music. He began learning the piano at the age of eight and later moved on to discover software-synthesizers. Crimi continues to explore various approaches to creating music, producing ambient, dub, house and minimal techno, but regardless of the genre he always keeps it deep and sultry. Crimi’s work has appeared on such labels as Italic, Broque, Geilomat, Sthlmaudio Recordings and many others.

On A Night In The Forest, Alessandro Crimi delivers seamless quality dub techno inspired grooves. Nachtwald opens with echoing chords and panning effects combined with a steady 4/4 rhythm, propelling the listener forward. Nebelwald is a gradual building atmospheric dub techno soundscape, immersing you deep within its floating textures. Waldlichtung closes the EP with a beautiful soft dub techno composition with light floating ambiance and textural crackling.

Nachtwald
Nebelwald
Waldlichtung

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REVIEWS: Netlabelism | Rantadi

www.alessandrocrimi.ch

Vancouver based producer The Square Root of Evil (aka Jen Pearson) is predominately known for her quirky IDM chiptune performances, recently opening for Warp recording artists Plaid. On her latest release, “Shiretoko” she delivers a rare appearance as X41, her ambient alias and collaboration with Jon Anastasiades. Using a collection of software and hardware, they draw their influences from a wide variety of sources; organic and inorganic ambiance, astronomy, oceans and internal soundscapes. Together they’ve performed numerous times, including Decibel festival, Pan Ambient and sub.ciliate art events. The duo usually incorporates a visual component with custom projections (made by Jon under his PixelWrangler pseudonym), lasers and costumes.

Shiretoko, meaning “end of the earth,” is a thirty-three minute semi-improvised dark yet emotionally encapsulating ambient drone journey with haunting nuances, submersive echoing, reverberating spatial synths and hints of guitar distortions creating an other worldly experience. How you interpret Shiretoko’s cosmic atmosphere is where the visceral beauty lies, revealing deeper experiences with each listen.

Shiretoko

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www.thesquarerootofevil.com | www.myspace.com/xfourtyone

A multi-talented producer, DJ and audio software developer from Seattle, Joel Pryde is one of the few artists that creates the tools on which he plays. About a year ago he developed traxPad, one of the only multi-touch DJ applications, which is currently used by many DJs in Seattle and around the world. Joel Pryde returns with his second basic_sounds release, Kalimotxo.

Joel Pryde’s opening track, Take Apart delivers a sophisticated balance between trance and techno. He starts out slow, unleashing a gradual build of dark synths, hand claps and driving swooshes that are engineered to perfection and ideal for creating that epic brooding big-room tension. Motxo is a sci-fi tinged, retro-futuristic slower-paced acid journey incorporating swirling ambient details and spongy shuffle base rhythms. Kali closes the EP with a dirty chunky groove including looping vocals and wet quirky reverbs for the ultimate jacking dancefloor track.

Take Apart
Motxo
Kali

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www.acidlunchbox.com

Toronto based Headaches (aka Landon Speers), predominately known for his photography, creates textured visceral soundscapes inspired by film scores and visual music. With a keen sense of space and environment he crafts physically engaging compositions that develop cinematic narratives, evoking listeners to experience a sense of time and place of their own.

I Wasn’t Born Yesterday opens with a dark lo-fi soundscape composed of deep throbbing pulses and distant strings. ‘II’ slowly bleeds in with a looping sentimental piano melody. The composition gradually distorts into some lush digital textures, incorporating nostalgic field recordings, grandeur pulses and crackling backwashes. ‘III’ is a warm inviting child-like trance with playful looping progressions that create feelings of uplifting melancholy. ‘IV’ is a dense immersive composition that integrates mournful strings and submersive beats with muffled background static. Resonating piano melodies from track ‘II’ resurface and shimmer in ‘V,’ creating a delicately fading finish. Overall a deeply moving and stunning release.

I
II
III
IV
V

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www.landonspeers.com | landonspeers.bandcamp.com