The debut album "Computerlove" from Belgian/Russian artist Veronica Maximova, sets the scene for a broader vision for the label, while also establishing Veronica as a fresh and important artistic voice on the VOITAX roster. The title of the album describes a generation that is connected more than ever, and yet still alone in a society where happiness is mandatory. The attachment to a screen is instilled in almost every waking activity of a generation that knows how good it feels to share their life with somebody, but also knows how vulnerable and insecure one can become by sharing.
a1. Computerlove
a2. Cantsleep
a3. Fakboi
b1. Fake It
b2. Who Cares
b3. Truth Is Your Flesh
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Release Date: 22nd March 2019
In tandem with Feel Fly aka Daniele Tomassini's debut album on Internasjonal we invited DJ Sotofett to do his thing over a track of his choosing. Head honcho PT on side B. Pressed on 45 for maximum pleasure/pressure.
For his Studio Barnhus debut, Laurence Guy connects the dots between the lo-fi ambient investigations of his 2017 album Saw You For The First Time, the warm club sounds heard on All I See Is Her (last year’s standout 12′’ for Tokyo’s Mule Music), and the London-based dj/producer’s long roots in deep drum’n’bass and dubstep soil. Those roots, always present as subtle rhythmical traces on Laurence Guy records, now appear more explicitly than ever, boosting the typically graceful harmonies and sooty samples of Guy’s music with a new, profound energy. From the unswerving neo-jungle of Wildlife, through My Brain Is A Scrambled Egg with its dusty rave euphorisms, onwards to the hypnotic guitar ballad It’s Good To Try, this six-track EP is chock-full of the sort of unrestrained musical enthusiasm that Studio Barnhus is always on the lookout for. Making Music Is Bad For Your Self Esteem is at once Guy’s most experimental and most personal record yet, an essential addition to both artist’s and label’s catalogues.
Second release for the Decouple ][ Series, a project that aims to showcase artists working, in their own ways, at the bold fringes of electronic composition, experimenting around the topics of increasing complexity, dependencies and miscommunication in a media-saturated digital era.
British producers Dale Cornish and Sim Hutchins join the project, the former playing with an anti-sober, almost eccentric euphoria, the latter with nostalgic and slighty eerie ambient feel. The thinness of reality is made of transparent things and refractions – external and internal points of view of the same subject.
Croydon’s prodigy Dale Cornish joyously plays here with a terse, oblique, abstract, almost candid, almost brutal TR- 909’s ‘floor friendly pattern. Not immune to unpredictable subtle fractures, the witty nine minutes of percussive repetition stretches out beyond its physical form, hinting at moments of climax but never overwhelming its voyeuristic nature. Saturated handclaps and hi-hat pan-pots widen top-end frequencies while classic 909 claves incursions, cowbells and tambourines counterpoint. What sounds like a recording of Dale’s own voice lasciviously recurs so to become the track’s title itself – ‘California’! Playfully pointillist explorations, pulse and percussive deconstructed gestures place this track into the elusive territory between dance-floor and experimental.
‘The product of a bleak winter night, cold fingers gripped tightly on restraint/release controls. Red wine sipped from a mug in lieu of adequate central heating. Stifled sense of euphoria inferred by subtle melodies not brave enough to visibly cross frozen pads, instead opting to lurk in the chill of closed hats and hollow bandpasses. Though unable to procure the resources required to stoke the internal flames of creative thought, I powered through instead and struck tipsily at chords, and at the red-skied February dawn ‘Druk Pak’ was the end result’. No better words than Sim Hutchins’ own to describe a tune of potential somnambulism, obscure awarness and future nostalgia for the present-day. Another time his vision, sounds and impulses set markers of contemporaneity.
All cover pictures for the Decouple ][ Series are taken from Alice Bonfanti’s ‘Transparent Things’ [1997] courtesy of the artist.
Clutching At Straws is a brand new label established by Brian Ring. Born in Cork, Ireland. Ring has been residing in Berlin for over 4 years, during which time he has lent his dancefloor-focused, predominantly house sounds to a range of renowned labels including Freerange. Running Back and Bordello A Parigi. A producer who values a vehement quality-over-quantity approach, Clutching At Straws represents the first time Ring has helmed his own imprint. Featuring two originals as well as a remix from London producer Kiwi, the Reflections EP is most definitely deserving of the wait.
We kick off with ‘Acid Sunrise’, a classy house cut that envelops the listener in a warm glow from the off. Full of colourful motifs throughout, it’s part acid/part Balearic-tinged sound is the perfect antidote to Europe’s current climes. Characterised by a nimble, catchy-as-hell baseline, this one is pure dynamite of the sort that will sound at its most pronounced as the first signs of morning begin to enter the dancefloor.
Next up is Kiwi, a producer who’s been making power moves of his own lately thanks to a host of well-received cuts for the likes of Jennifer Cardini’s Correspondent, Tennis’ Life & Death and Optimo’s Optimo Music. His dramatic reinterpretation of Ring’s ‘Forest Walk’ , is a highbrow gem that’s full of gorgeous melodies and all-round positive vibes, with the man in charge changing the narrative quite exceptionally toward the track’s final phases.
Culminating the record is the sounds of ‘Emergency Tool’, a real statement track that’s sure to leave DJs and dancers in a frenzy over the next few months. An upfront banger of the sort that wonderfully incorporates both house and techno elements, it starts off on a fairly innocuous tip before unfurling into an uptempo beast. Full of clever bells and a vocal that demands us to “move!” (as well as a wailing cop siren that only heightens the sense of mania), ‘Emergency Tool’ is a track that’s destined to be used by discerning DJs when they really have to step things up a notch.
![Dale Cornish / Sim Hutchins - Decouple ][ Series](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0488/8057/products/ooh-012_{width}x.jpg?v=1549452986)
