Electro 14 Items

Miss Kittin & The Hacker are the Electro duo of Caroline Hervé and Michel Amato from Grenoble, France. The pair met during the early 90s at a rave and soon after bought turntables and began DJing. In 1996, they began writing music heavily influenced by 80s synth and post-punk bands like Fad Gadget, DAF, Liaisons Dangeuresues, and Yazoo, as well as Italo Disco. Bored by the techno scene at the time, they set out out to lighten the serious tone and bring a campy sexiness to the dour musical landscape. Upon hearing their demos DJ Hell signed them to his Munich-based International DJ Gigolo label and released their first 2 EPs in 1998 and 1999. Their debut album ”First Album” was released in 2001.
“Lost Tracks Vol. 1” contains 4 previously unreleased demos recorded between 1997 and 1999. The duo fused 80’s European New Wave/Italo Disco with 90’s Detroit Electro acts like Le Car and Dopplereffekt. By utilizing verse-chorus structures, they playfully shook up the loop based hard techno and electro that was popular at the time. Their studio set up at the time was a Korg MS-20, Roland SH-101, TR-606, TR-808, Siel DK80, and Boss DR-660 drum machine. The songs are direct, spontaneous, seemingly improvised in places. Miss Kittin sings about falling in love with an alien, sexy nightlife in Berlin, and explicit S&M leather play, all in her cheekily derisive French accent
All songs have been transferred from the original DAT tapes by the band and mastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The vinyl comes housed in a glossy jacket featuring a black and white photo of the duo taken in 1996. Each LP includes a postcard with liner notes from Miss Kittin and The Hacker designed by Eloise Leigh. As Miss Kittin says of these demos, “We were naive, innocent, adventurous and we didn’t expect anything in return”.

As the years go by, the ranks of Degiheugi's fans continue to swell: each time a new solid-gold disc is added to their already impressive discography, the result is a unique and impressive work in the French beatmaking landscape.

Endless smile, the sixth instalment, once again proves to be a great vintage, immediately limpid, but above all long in the mouth, charged with intense melodic persistence and loops that take the ear hostage.

And what a variety of aromas in the art of sampling: languorous strings, oriental flutes, bouncy brass, exotic percussion, intimate piano, samples of antediluvian blues or forgotten French chanson. This Grand Ouest varietal finds its perfect balance in a classic, timeless hip-hop spirit that runs like a red thread throughout the album.

When other beatmakers give in too quickly to the sirens of the dancefloor, Degiheugi always transports us back to his first hip-hop loves, for the pure pleasure of the “beautiful loop”. And he knows how to surround himself with the right people: his guests, whether faithful compatriots (Ghostown, Andrre, Astrid Van Peetersen) or newcomers (Ceschi, Josh Martinez), join in the party with high-flying featurings. The album title sounds like a prophecy: smile eternally as you listen to Degiheugi.

The new edition of Late Night Tales journeys to Scandinavia to invite Norwegian duo Röyksopp to delve through their record collection.

Here's the next soon-to-be-classic by Parov Stelar!

Cititrax is excited to present the first in a series of 4 song samplers showcasing the talents of some of the most innovative producers of the moment. Cititrax: Tracks Volume One features Amato, an edgy new project brought to you by The Hacker, Tzusing, a young producer from China known for his hard-hitting L.I.E.S. releases, our beloved Berlin based former New Yorker An-i, and Oliver Ho’s stunning Broken English Club. The overall sound can be described as modern, uncompromising and guttural. Each artist reinvents dance music by bringing their own unique vision to the floor. Artwork designed by Veronica Vasicka and sourced from Polaroids shot in NYC clubs in the 1980s.

UK techno founders B12 return! The duo's history famously started in the early 90's with their music appearing under a plethora of monikers under the "B12 Records" umbrella - 12" vinyl with notorious cryptic messages engraved in the run-out grooves, before being collected into album form and release on Warp. After a hiatus in the late 90's, the pair resurfaced briefly for some live shows, a flurry of hugely sought-after 12"s and a 7-part CD anthology. They then abruptly disappeared again - this is their first appearance in 5 years, fittingly on Glaswegian imprint Soma. (Their seminal Warp Records album was named Electro Soma...is there a connection?) The Bokide 325 EP Is it a planet to be explored, or the journey through a personal hell? Only a few know for sure but at the end of this voyage expressed in the best way B12 know how, layers of sounds, beats, synths, lush pads, and seductive melodies the hope of a whole new reality is reached. It conjures up foreboding, planetary soundscapes - rooted in the more ambient, filmic side of their output, is it a reflection of recent turmoil within/ the artists personal lives? The EP opens with "Into the Void", whose simple but emotive synth line weaves its way across a variety of beats and sounds, and takes the listener into the depths where the true journey can commence. Onwards, darker and more mysterious notes loom up throughout "Descension" and "Unsound Mind", with pounding bass throbbing underneath, leading further into the world of shadows where the alarming awareness that something isn't quite right never truly leaves you. It concludes with Terra Incognita, the final track of the EP - an unknown place, left to be discovered and completed by the listener.

Next up on Greek label Lower Parts is a fierce EP from the one and only DJ Stingray, who serves up one of his strongest releases in a while and, at the same time, marks his comeback with a bang. Featuring a remix by Athens talent Kon001, who Stingray has been meaning to release for years and who got personally handpicked by him for this assignment, the EP’s titles tell us of the Detroit man’s interest in science, biology and evolution and covers plenty of musical styles. Stingray has won plenty of acclaim with serious releases on labels like Naked Lunch, Bleep and Itinerant Dub. He wastes no time here in nailing down a nervy techno groove on ‘Acetylcholine’, with its hurried kicks, electro synths and slithering bass lines all racing along as you do the same. Dendrite is then a half time, lurching number with serious dub weight and serene synths that manages to be beautiful and brutal at the same time. On the flip, ‘eRbB4’ is a slick, journeying bit of electro-techno with real soul and emotion in its bones, before kon001 does Stingray proud with a dynamic, spangled remix that is metallic and reflective, groovy and evocative. This is a killer release from Stingray and is yet another fine offering from Lower Parts.

First release by the new danish collective count 0, a stellar 7" which can be described as "everything from ebm/post punk to fast dark techno".

Known for his role in The Pain Machinery and Severe Illusion, Stockholm native Anders Karlsson has more recently begun to explore similar strands of industrial and EBM in a solo capacity as Celldod, issuing several limited cassettes over the course of 2014. Those without the facilities to consume cassettes will be happy to see some of this Celldod material now issued on vinyl thanks to the efforts of Canadian label Suction Records. Some six tracks deep, Pulsdisco features material from the two cassettes of the same name Karlsson released last year and those that like their EBM minimalist and without vocals will find plenty to enjoy here.

Re-issue of the classic album by Heinrich Mueller. Originally released in the early 00's (2004 to be precise) which basicly was deep into the future for everyone born before 1980. Techno was still about innovation, stepping into the future, going ahead, updated technologies, exploring the new.? Like previous releases Heinrich Mueller takes inspiration from latest technologies and developments. For this album he had support from Biometric systems Gmbh in Bayern, Germany. He was allowed to visit their laboratories and gather information of biometric research (which at that time was the latest developments in human interaction with hi-technology). The results are 11 tracks that are a brilliant abstract reflection of these new technologies and the effective practical use of these techniques in our daily live. Heinrich Mueller takes his musical journey further away from his well-known early Dopplereffekt releases and several side projects and merges those early projects wit h hi-technology applications available for modern studio engineering. The full length album shows the dark emotions and also the energy and positive feelings which come with new technological applications. These 11 tracks are a selection of musical arrangements with and without rhythmical structures. It’s a collection of abstract interpretations and expressions of human emotions during a period of discovering the latest scientifically applications (in general) and finding new information about the possibilities of biometrical identification in 2004. Actually 3 years into the future if we consider 2001 the fruition of the idea of the future for the 70 and 80's generation. And it was just before or maybe even right at the moment that techno music lost its focus on the future and became retrospective. This album is the future.