Review: Mark follows last year's debut on Unterton with this rough and ready follow up. Roughly positioned as drum'n'bass, "Fucking Sick Of Myself Since Day One" (Hot Desk mix)" resounds to raw break beats and a splurging sub-bass, accompanied by a nihilistic Northerner talking himself down. "Hats Off To Herr F" isn't as frenetic, but sees the Berlin artist take the sub-bass menace of jungle and apply it to a slower, stepping rhythm. Finally, there's the title track, where Mark strips back the rhythm and puts a focus on the kind of ominous low end that wouldn't have sounded out of place on a Metalheadz compilation.
Review: his devious blend of techno sounds to a less minimally-minded dance audience. His strain of industrialism is loud and audible on "Forewarned Is Forearmed", a steely, broken techno rhythm that gather more and more pace as the deathly sonics cave in, while "Common Ancestor" ounces on fluidly without the help of any kick drums. "Doublethink" is an ode to 1984 dystopia, a wide soundscape of liquid drums and eerie melodies swirling over head, leaving "Atlas" to ponder in a dark, intricate whirlpool of sludgy melodies and broken percussion shots. Recommended!
Review: Australian Mark Harwood is a publisher (Penultimate Press), event curator and sound artist who is now residing in London. He appears for Ostgut Ton diffusion imprint Unterton, following up some intriguing sonic experiments for hometown heroes A Colourful Storm that had a political focus: namely Berlin's gentrification. Now with some jagged and angular techno experiments that the label have best described themselves as 'psychedelic beat science.. at times tranquil and hypnotic, other times charging forward between cracked whips and whiplash left-turns.' "Know No Out Only In" and "Veiling Hazards" are chilling avant-garde soundscapes, while "See In Symbols" is an advanced drum 'n' bass experiment calling to mind the late '90s work of Photek or Optical.
Review: With two releases to his credit for Jealous God, Hayden Payne aka Phase Fatale sets his sights on Ostgut spin-off label Unterton. The release starts with the crushing broken beats and dramatic but bleak synths of "Hollow Flesh". The title track sees the US producer delivering a tunneling, hollowed out groove that will set more adventurous dance floors alight, but in the main this is a deeply experimental release. "Wound", with its frazzled, noisy textures and cold drums, sounds like the kind of contorted techno that Oliver Ho is making as Broken English Club. The stand out track is "The Size of God" and its eerie, sinister synth sweeps and staccato drum rolls make it nothing short of majestic.
Review: The Unterton label has only one goal in its sight, and that is to dominate all dance floors with a tight, regimented techno flair that is characteristic of the modern Berlin sound. Somewhen, a young Berliner who obviously has a deep passion for his city's musical tradition, feels like a natural addition to the label, and we'd already clocked onto him thanks to a string of recent releases for the Sana label. Although we're talking straight up techno here, the opener "Inward" delivers a squelching, distorted 4/4 bullet that places it in the weirder end of the genre's spectrum, with the same going for "Grit", a broken, mid-tempo jam that has more in common with downtempo than 3am Berghain noise. "Null Drift" does, however, provide some straighter heat, and "Diskret" ties off this excellent EP with some low-pitched techno backed by a hint of 303 power. Strong.
Review: Ukrainian producer Etapp Kyle has already put out two EPs on Klockworks, but this release on Ostgut spin-off Unterton may prove surprising. Indeed, opening track "Opto" calls to mind the grainy, analogue trance of Canadian label Wagon Repair from the mid-00s. "Ahora" makes for another unexpected twist, with Kyle using broken beats and dusty sounds to create an offbeat techno track. That said, he also caters to those who want heads-down techno; the title track rides a pulsing bass and ominous synths for a subtle approach, while "Limb" marks a return to the Klockworks aesthetic, as distorted kicks, insistent claps and acid undercurrents bubble to the surface.
Review: The mysterious Summe debuts on Ostgut offshoot Unteron with a stark, purist release. The "Schleife" tracks on Summe are all techno-based and range from the stop-start slinky rhythm of "Schleife 1", through the ticking percussion and pounding industrial beats of "Schleife IX", before ending with the relentless, acid-fuelled minimalism of "Schleife III" - which sounds like Plastikman's remix of System 7's "Alphawave" getting cosy with the firing, visceral minimalism of Rob Hood. It's not all peak-time techno however; "Objectness" is a slinky, angular minimal house workout in the early Akuen vein, while the release starts with the short but powerful ambient drones of "Erosion".
Review: Ostgut's sister label continues its voyage into the grey area between the abstract and the main floor with a release that may come to be merely known as 'hyphens'. While not completely forsaking the dance floor, "Contact", is all dark drones and shattered glass percussion riding the dark backing rhythm, while "Aggregate" veers back towards club usage with its hammering drums, razor sharp percussion and concrete beats. "Osmium" also shows that there is more common ground between the abstract and the dance floor with filtered percussion and acidic bass licks providing all of the action, before "Herschel" dips back into the abstract with dreamy synths and breathy vocals underpinned by subtle broken beats.
Review: The first of two promised Darkhaus volumes from veteran Sheffield trio The Black Dog arrives on Ostgut Ton's Unterton imprint, and predictably, it's something of a belter. "Council Flat Emptiness" is a rolling piece of analogue techno funk bathed in a wash of cascading dystopian synth textures; it's preceded by the "Stripped" version which pulls all the decorative elements back to just a simple combination of raw bass and lysergic stabs. Luke Slater makes a welcome return to his LB Dub Corp alias with his remix; giving it an industrial overhaul with mammoth kick drums, it puts everything except the juggernaut bassline into a digital blender, slowly building up to a crescendo of whirring bitcrushed noise which mingles with a surprisingly funky melody. In a landscape full of increasingly dry techno, The Black Dog are a consistent breath of fresh air.
Review: Three releases deep and Ostgut sister label Unterton remains consistently surprising in their output; launching with remixes of tobias, the label subsequently secured the first original output from Lauer and Gerd 'the word' Janson's Tuff City Kids project. That latter release was prime Panorama Bar material and a favourite of the Juno office and now they present something wholly different in the form of Manhooker. Comprised of producer Guiddo and vocalist Mavin, Manhooker's music presents a lighter side to the stern techno associated with the Ostgut Ton empire, inviting you into a "merry world of post-disco and proto-house, mirror ball fantasies, baby powder dreams and rays of sunshine".
Review: Gerd and Phil land their first set of original Tuff City Kids tracks in style, taking the controls for the second release on Unterton, the newly established offshoot of Ost Gut Ton. The Bobby Tacker EP has Janson and Lauer crafting three tracks of beefcake house with one clear purpose in mind, and executed with the skills they've honed over countless excellent remixes under the Tuff City Kids banner over the years. Lead track "SFS" wastes no time in playing its trump card; a glossy, thick synth line that pulses all the way through the track while the bottom end comes on all rugged and antsy. Meanwhile "Bias" exercises an air of restraint, letting a simple beat unfold while a tense string edges in from the side hinting at the fearsome techno line that growls in the lower register, imbued with the DNA of dub but twisted to a malevolent intent. Finally "Begger" kicks off on some booming Chicago drums slowed down to a modern cruise, but once again it's a powerful lead synth that rules the day.
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you've provided to them or that they've collected from your use of their services.