Acid Test continues their journey with the return of Achterbahn D’Amour. On their first proper release in three years, Jool & Iron Curtis patiently craft an intricate sound world - with the opening track, major-key pads hearken towards a bright future, hi-hats rustle like leaves and on “Dehaveland,” percussive elements fall into beautiful, random unison like factory machines staging an after hours dance. Samuel Van Dijk’s vaunted VC-118A project steps up for a remix, turning in a taut techno version that unfurls smoke pillars of ghostly ambience. The duo wraps up the four-tracker with an unexpected dreamy electro turn, “Don’t Talk To Me.” Throughout Acid Test 13, they remain in lockstep with the label’s ethos - to bend, hammer and flatten acid lines into new, imaginative shapes.
After a first collaboration focusing on the City of Angels, LA legend John Tejada and acid innovator Tin Man (Johannes Auvinen), this time brooding on the latter’s home city, and former’s birthplace, Vienna. The Austrian capital is known as “the city of music” and the “city of dreams,” two broadly aligning concepts that go far in describing this beguiling 12-inch. The four songs were mixed down live to 2 tracks, created in the real world without a daw, or multi tracking, which has really captured the spirit of performance and improvisation. Succeeding “Railjet,” a tense drum workout, comes “Bim,” referring to the colorful trams that run through Vienna. Here, Auvinen sculpts his 303 into near-pizzicato form. The acid box is accompanied by stately pads making for one of the duo’s most memorable tracks yet. The next cut, “Danube Nights,” references the mighty, ancient river, the flow motion mirrored by a couple of widescreen acid lines. A pensive lead and some melancholy chords emerge, but the drums roll right along like the water- tough enough for a heaving floor with a hint of fragility for the headphones. The record concludes with the acidic “Prater Allee,” named after idyllic, sprawling park on the banks of the Danube. The duo’s love letter to Vienna is well-suited for travel, for the dance and for dreaming.
The latest missive from Acid Test has the label identifying with its hometown, Los Angeles, more than ever.
LA-born Vienna resident and label mainstay Tin Man takes Vienna-born Angeleno resident John Tejada along for a four-track journey which dwells on the activity which defines life in the City of Angels, driving. Opener “Swiftbox” is a perfect amalgam of Auvinen and Tejada’s respective styles- Tremulous 303 and complex minor key melodicism and deconstructed stabs. “Diamond Lanes” is another muscular acid cut with a subtle, swinging percussion.
The Diamond Lanes in question can be used when you have a passenger in the car. When widescreen pads come in over jacking snares, you can picture the duo tearing through the iconic 2nd street tunnel out onto the 10 west towards the ocean, leaving the city’s warehouse district in their wake. Label regulars Achterbahn D’amour reimagine “Diamond Lanes” as a skeletal electro roller with their remix version. The closer “Deep Traffic” is a bugged-out acid cut which captures the feeling of sitting alone in a crowd of autos, crawling towards eternal sunset.
Precedes the release of Recondites upcoming album “PLACID” - Placid will be released in October as 2LP + 2CD. CD version will feature “Placid” as well as Bonus “On Acid”
Recondite’s debut album “OnAcid” ATLP01 see’s a reissue in September together with a brand new single ASD025 “Limber/Undulate - LawrenceMixes” ! The melancholic acid album released on Absurd’sAcidTest imprint gained much acclaim upon it’s initial release and has been in high demand for a repress since. Next to the mentioned Single 12″ - the album repress also precedes the release of his upcoming album “PLACID” - For those who have been waiting for “On Acid” to be listened to on long autobahn rides or more generally to have it at hand ready to be played any other time
When Recondite, AKA Lorenz Brunner, emerged with his debut LP for Acid Test (2012’s On Acid), we were still learning about the German producer’s inward- looking dance floor sound. A few years later, his sinewy jams have proved near universal – like an underground Zelig, he’s fit perfectly everywhere from Rødhåd’s Dystopian to Ghostly International and Innervisions. Acid Test also allows Recondite the chance to indulge his more outré tendencies and a welcomed return it is.
Since his last full-length, Ode, Tin Man, AKA Johannes Auvinen, has taken a collaborative approach to acid, bringing his 303 box into studio scenarios with Cassegrain, John Tejada, AAAA and Gunnar Haslam in order to explore new territory.
On Acid Test 11, Auvinen's arrived on a seamless pairing with Manchester production duo JozefK and Winter's Son. On the title track, Tin Man's acrobatic 303 no longer has to do the melodic heavy lifting—the Mancunians provide a sturdy yet plaintive piano base that allows a duet of acid lines to cut through the heady atmosphere. Interdimensional Transmissions boss Erika toughens things up considerably with her "Fate's Unknown" remix, stripping things back to a creepy, jacking core. "Pendle By Night" underlines the ad hoc trio's propensity for widescreen heft. The track's epic, emotional tone feels like a natural product of the collaboration.
Ten years ago, Acid Test began with a simple concept—each track the label released would make use of the Roland TB-303. Like a producer purposefully paring down their studio setup, or the continuous imperative within underground electronic music to reduce, this concept engendered creativity with the introduction of what seemed to be an aesthetic limit. However, the decade that followed, which now culminates in the triple-LP compilation Ten Years Of Acid Test, proves acid is limitless.
That the Berlin-via-LA label would expand upon the classical conception of acid house and techno is no surprise considering the cast of characters that have come in fold over the past decade. Ten Years Of Acid Test gathers key material from the label's extended family of acid acolytes. There's that Vienna-via-LA maestro of sad, elegant acid Tin Man (Johannes Auvinen), whose "Afters Acid" is both a highlight within his prolific catalogue and a distillation of his symphonic approach to the 303. Detroit giants Erika and Marcellus Pittman, both of whom have released remixes on Acid Test, present their respective and singular Bass Line visions. Erika, the Interdimensional Transmissions lynchpin, crafts a dark, delicate take on broken techno on "Violet Fungus" while Pittman continues his cubist house explorations on "Unknown Species," both tracks straying from typical acid lines in favor of the intricate textures achievable on the 303.
This variation in approach applies to tempo as well. Irish-based master Lerosa, as well as Delsin affiliate VC-118A, delve into downtempo atmospherics. Meanwhile, Japanese deep techno virtuoso Wata Igarashi, SUED co-founder SW. (a regular on Acid Test's leftfield sub-label Avenue 66) and Patricia (one-half of Acid Test act Ociya) use acid as a creative jumping-off point for complex melodic concepts. Wata layers an orchestra of synth-bliss drone overtop a squelchy bassline on "Ephemeral." SW.'s "ChaIAnJAzzz" cycles through an array of dusted chords eventually landing in skewed, fuzzy rave nostalgia, anthemic chords held aloft by a wicked UK-flavour bass line. Patricia's “Higher Still” explores dreamy, IDM-flavoured acid, cinematic synthlines counterbalanced by propulsive, squelching acid.
Acid Test devotees will be thrilled at the return of various luminaries from the catalogue, including Achterbahn D'Amour, Skudge, AAAA, John Tejada and Donato Dozzy, whose memorable remix of Tin Man's "Nonneo" from Acid Test 01 served as a kind of proof of concept for the label. There's new blood too. San Francisco up-and-comer Sepehr makes his label debut with the excellent "Persian Acid Prince," as does Andreas Tilliander's beloved hardware techno project, TM404.
Like the original Hot Mix 5 Acid compilation, which highlighted the original cohort of Chicago acid innovators including Pierre, Fingers and Armando, Ten Years Of Acid Test is a valuable portrait of a group of artists linked by a dedication to innovation within acid, in line with the genre's storied roots. Over ten years, Acid Test has gracefully made a case for the 303's past, present and future, the story of acid continuing to unfurl in unpredictable, addictive patterns.
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