2010s 16 Items

It is actually unbelievable what the 27-year-old producer from Cologne has achieved in the last two years. His debut album "Roosevelt" released on August 19, 2016, immediately made it into the top 100 of the German album charts and is considered to be one of the most important new pop albums in the German music scene and one of the few albums that also caused a sensation internationally. "He has the potential to go around the world," the Spiegel magazine attested, and he did.
With his debut album Roosevelt also managed to break into the US market, as well as the UK, France, Holland and Italy - even Mexico. Festivals around the world compete for him: Primavera Sound, The Governors Ball Music Festival (New York), Sónar Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Sziget Festival, Lollapalooza Festival and many others. Radio stations at home and abroad still play "Fever" and "Moving On" up and down. His listeners drive him to almost 80 million streams at Spotify. Everyone wants him to remix their songs (Chvrches, Glass Animals, RHYE, Who Made Who, Blossoms and Sinkane) And what does he do? He records a cover version of "Teardrops" and becomes subsequently a honorary member of the Womack & Womack family.

Much-needed re-issue of this privately released 2007 album. Martial Canterel’s Sean McBride is the progenitor of American cold synth sounds of the 21st Century. He began under the moniker Moravagine before he started releasing limited edition cassettes and playing Brooklyn dives as Martial Canterel in 2002. Since then, McBride’s bleak intellectual exercises in the dark and danceable have flooded North America and Europe through the frosty fairwaves paved by Pieter Schoolwerth’s Wierd Records. With an inimitable minimal style merging bright, urgent melodies ornamented and punctuated by the noises of industry and McBride’s sonorous, stern vocals, Martial Canterel’s earlier releases (You Today, Refuge Underneath) have garnered both critical acclaim and a rapidly growing rabid fan base. Sean is also one half of the duo Xeno & Oaklander together with Miss Liz Wendelbo.

The album Austerton consists of some of his earliest work recorded in 2003. The ten minimal synth songs on the LP are reminiscent of music by bands like Dark Day, Snowy Red, A Blaze Colour, League Of Nations. Through the collision of a uniquely humanistic means of production via live analogue synthcraft expertly paired with vocals and lyrics that reflect the pitfalls and pleasures of our age, Martial Canterel provides a visceral kick best felt on the dancefloor, amidst a flurry of flesh in motion.

Limited to 1000 copies.

COMA’s new album, Voyage Voyage, casts a sweet and heavy-hearted hypnagogic glow that tells the story of these complicated moments through its complex web of sonics. Across ten pristine tracks, the pair meld piano, guitar, drums, synths and electronic flourishes to futuristic vocal harmonies that amp up the melancholic pop factor and capture life’s fleeting moments, moods and adventures. One of the album’s standout tracks, “Snurrebassen”, was written during a fishing trip to the Baltic Sea. Fusing a pop sensibility with dance music’s communal properties, the German duo of Georg Conrad and Marius Bubat create music rich in melody and often melancholy. COMA’s repertoire occupies an emotionally-driven corner of the electronic music spectrum, where dynamic soundscapes collide with honest lyrics. Having initially signed to Cologne’s electronic label Kompakt, COMA may have their roots firmly in the city’s fabled club scene, but their effervescent, groove-tipped synth-pop blurs boundaries and strays outside the lines. Their new home of City Slang (Caribou, Gold Panda, Tindersticks) is the perfect fit for their hypnotic brand of indie-electro. “We’ve never been ravers,'' says COMA’s Marius Bubat. “Although we have definitely been inspired by the energy of club music”

Since the release of Solo Piano II, Chilly Gonzales composed the best-selling
book of easy piano pieces Re-Introduction Etudes, produced and released Octave
Minds, the piano-meets-electronica album with Boys Noize and, most
importantly, devoted himself to finding a modern take on chamber music.
The result is "Chambers", an album for piano and string quartet (and a few
surprises along the way). Inspired by the deepening relationship with Hamburg's
Kaiser Quartett, the album re-imagines Romantic-era chamber music as today's
addictive pop. Gestures from rap, ambient, easy listening and the avant-garde co- exist as always in Chilly Gonzales’ musical universe - this time with strings
attached.
Known equally for his intimate piano touch as for his showmanship, "Gonzo"
aims to be a man of his time, approaching the piano with classical and jazz
training but with the attitude of a rapper.
Chilly Gonzales holds the Guinness world record for the longest solo concert at
over 27 hours. He performs and writes songs with Jarvis Cocker, Feist and Drake,
among others. In 2014 he won a Grammy for his collaboration on Daft Punk’s
Best Album of the Year. With "Never Stop", Chilly Gonzales composed a global
hit for the inaugural Apple iPad campaign.