rec72 – 5th Anniversary Compilation

Acid, Ambient & Experimental, Broken Beat, Downbeat & Downtempo, Dubstep & Garage, IDM, Instrumental // By: simiolioliocloseAuthor: simioliolio Email: simon@netlabelism.com
More Authors Posts (40) // 21/11/2012 // 1 Comment

Good news. Rec72 is five years old! Quirky, high quality, and eclectic are some good ways of describing the content presented on the newly refurbished website. And what better way of meeting each artist face to face than to download and check out this upfront and personal showcase with 16 specially-made tracks by eight of rec72′s most dedicated contributors.

Rec72 has a fine history. It has always been CC, and has always been a popular netlabel, as far as CC popularity goes. Last.fm states rec72 has just over 7,000 listeners, and 72,000 scrobbles, not bad for an entirely non-profit label run by one person. The owner, the fine gentleman that is Marco Medkour, doesn’t even have a big bright shinning button saying ‘donate’ in big friendly letters, splashed across every page of his netlabel. This is strictly purist Creative Commons. Getting involved, sharing as much as possible, A/V collaborations, etc etc. This is one of the truest examples of a ‘successful’ and popular netlabel, which purely exists for the purpose of creating and sharing.

So, the artists on this compilation: Gripping drones and wild melting melodics from Radio Scotvoid; joyously named Pandacetemol is forced out of his tech-house realm with a delicate acid slow jam and uptempo electro buzz; Nisei23 presents some glorious spine-tingling electroacoustics; Deef continues his chippy and sketchy broken style, which shows some excellent development since the EP reviewed on Netlabelism previously; Lofiuser presents a deep ambient wonder and a lush contrasting industrial experiment; a couple of dazzlingly baffling offerings from Eigenheimer (really impressed with these tracks, ‘Hold Hands…’ is the deepest this compilation goes); Small Colin’s suicide-preventing Scottish trancey chillout; and a couple of peculiar tracks by me (Bitbasic).

A nice quirky feature of the compilation is that each track has the same bpm. Exactly the same bpm. This gives the compilation quite a fantastic continuity and flow from one track to the next. Also considering each track was made from scratch by each contributing artist, it is quite impressive that each one has such a similar angle, considering what could have been submitted. Usually tracks for compilations are carefully chosen from previous releases, but rec72 have shown that they really have established a well-defined sound (a hard task for any netlabel owner). Hopefully people who are new to rec72 will get a lot of pleasure out of this album, and indeed if you are already familiar with the rec72 releases, this will come as a thrilling addition to the already bursting rec72 release list. Roll on the next 5 years! Congratulations Marco!

Eigenheimer – Moodswing Mixtape

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Stefano Rocchi – Spanish Madness

Acid, Deep House & Techno, TechHouse, Techno & Detroit // By: simiolioliocloseAuthor: simioliolio Email: simon@netlabelism.com
More Authors Posts (40) // 22/10/2012 // No Comments

‘Tech House’ is a term that I have never been that fond of. At what point does ‘House’ become ‘Tech House’ ? When the purpose of the tune is to dazzle a listener with detail, rather than supply a decent soundtrack to a club experience? In any case, the netlabel Ephedrina released a great ‘Tech House’ release a few months ago, and I just couldn’t let this one slip under the radar.

“STEFANO ROCCHI is back from his personal SpanishTrip and this is what he has heard, what he has felt and what he wants to tell you in the second Episode on Ephedrina Netlabel.”

A fairly confusing blurb, but you get the picture. It seems this release is the result of a traveling experience by the artist Stefano Rocchi, and it is his second release on this eclectic label. Information about this artist is limited to say the least. If the same Stefano Rocchi has this Soundcloud account, then I know that a) he has a fairly bushy beard, and b) is modestly not uploading any material! [edit: turns out the real Stefano Rocchi uses this soundcloud]

This release is a great blend of originality and diversity. A lot of it reminds of me Orbital; mellow and squelchy, with a lot of light-hearted analogue elements. However the tint this artist adds to an already-well-established and now-somewhat-dated sound kept my ears pricked up. It is simple, repetitive, and a little mind-numbing, but if you like that sort of thing, this is right up your street.

‘Nascimiento’ has a surprisingly tetchy introduction, when the regular thumping expected from a house album doesn’t quite get off the ground until just the right time, amidst a joyous bassline. ‘Hidden Key’ is by far my favourite, with velvety vocal chops and and a quirky simplicity. A plunge back to the acid techno era with the aptly named ‘Acid Arena’. Not so sure about ‘Mi Erasmus’, a little too confusing for my liking, and ‘Why say you’ was bizarre and gave me bad dreams.

In places it is a little dry, and with so much soul being thrust into music with seamless technical ability these days, it is hard not to identify this as a turn-off. And if it has been done before, this is not going to revolutionize electronic music culture or be regarded as a valuable contribution to the music scene. However, that doesn’t matter too much. Stefano has made a great album. It is crisp and clear, conforms to the toe-tapping and technique-fueled nature of the genre, and has him well lined up for spreading his ambitions and taking his sound as far as he is willing to. Perhaps a journey further afield than Spain is required by this artist (see quote above), before we get to hear a more crazy side to this artist!

Stefano Rocchi – Hidden Key

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Deeplink to: Release Page for [EPH036] (Archive)

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The Gasman – Polymerase EP [CF049]

Acid, Audio, Electronika, IDM, Techno & Detroit // By: NetlabelismcloseAuthor: Netlabelism Email: markus@modularfield.net
More Authors Posts (118) // 27/02/2011 // No Comments

Explore the deconstruction and reconfiguration of mid-nineties era music on The Gasman’s Polymerase EP which has been dropped via The Centrifuge Netlabel. The Gasman’s current EP musically reminds me of acts such as Plaid, µ-Ziq and even Aphex Twin.

Polymerase EP contains 7 tracks of punching acid tunes and progressive beats. Christopher Reeves hailing from Portsmouth (UK) is the man behind The Gasman. He has been making music for over a decade now, and released a dozen albums / EP’s via planet mu, sublight, Centrifuge and his own label called The Gasman Music.

The Gasman – Polymerase

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Deep link to the release page