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12"
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SA 017EP
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Kangding Ray presents an EP defined by dexterity, balancing the deepest drum with the most celestial synth, weaving a legend of both menace and tenderness. Possessed of an underlying hiss, the title-track dampens its muscular beat with a fabric of warm melodies. "Dimien Andesso" shuffles with a considered high-end and off-kilter pads. "Nuis Octury" is twisted into a fever that Ray eventually tempers. Closer "Ezerb Altren" conjures the image and emotion of an underground lake: depth, resonance, and total, glacial serenity.
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12"
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SA 015EP
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Split release from Pfirter and Kangding Ray on Stroboscopic Artefacts. Pfirter's "Caos y Orden Superior" is a weighty odyssey spread across nine minutes. Its opening is languid but somehow relentless as strange synthesized sounds are interrupted by insistent beats. Kangding Ray takes over duties with "Wars," a fragmented meditation on the darkest side of human nature. Created from hues saturated by the pain of mistakes and regrets, it pulses, rocking gently, swooning in and out.
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12"
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SA 016EP
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Preternity is an EP that collects four of the most dynamic artists in electronic music delving into tracks from Dadub's forthcoming album You Are Eternity (SA 003CD). Lucy, Lakker, Rrose, and Kangding Ray's remixes emerge as parallel versions of the original tracks. This vinyl is a unique look at the processes of four of electronic music's most keen experimenters and a taste of what's to come from Dadub's debut album.
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CD
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SA 003CD
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You Are Eternity is the third album to be released on Stroboscopic Artefacts and comes from two of the minds who have shaped the label since its earliest days: Dadub. Recorded over a period of two years, but containing fragments and ideas that stretch back a decade, You Are Eternity has been mixed together to form a continuous piece rather than 12 discrete tracks. The effect? An immersive journey that encompasses the descriptors brutal, ferocious, ambient and aqueous. The album title hints at the almost spiritual origins of the album, Dadub's search for music that goes further, that spreads away from the confines of the time and place in which we find ourselves, music that seeps into the cavern of the eternal. Tucked into "Vibration," the very first track, is a sample of the Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. He leans close and says music is a spiritual gift, and those who misuse it, die young. Sage words. You Are Eternity is a record that refuses to take any chances, and Dadub are clearly producers intent on being around for quite some time. Features contributions from Edit Select, King Cannibal, and Øe.
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12"
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SA 008EP
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2011 release. The beelines of Tommy Four Seven, James Ruskin, Peter Van Hoesen, and Truss return to Lucy's hive, taking the most experimental and cross-pollinated paths. This 12" acts as a case-in-point for techno, melding and fusing genre boundaries to reveal new hybrid sounds. The artists chose the tracks that they wished to remix and fused their own defined sound identities with that of Stroboscopic Artefacts. Mastered by Artefacts Mastering, Berlin.
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CD
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SA 001CD
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2010 release. With Wordplay for Working Bees, Lucy creates a blueprint -- not just the departure point for the full-length format according to Stroboscopic Artefacts, but he also lays down new possibilities for the techno album. Refusing the obvious 4/4 route, Lucy traverses the widest possibilities of electronic music. Wordplay for Working Bees encompasses IDM that leans towards drone, puckering, dub-filled techno and ambient in its most oblique forms. The beloved character of Lucy's DJ sets, the way he layers tracks to find unique timbre and tone, is reflected in his studio approach. Lucy's debut album results in the most delicate and delicious juxtapositions, as the unexplained and unexpected tangle together in the ear. The search for hybrid structures begins with "Thear." Through Stockhausen's words, Lucy hints at a manifesto: whenever we hear sounds we are changed, no longer the same. The record is textured with riddling vocals -- be it the slither of a UN summit speech heard on "Eon" or the wisps of Le Corbusier on "Gas" -- and none are used with idle intent. Just as on "Eis," where the samples appear to be engaged in discussion but the thread of their argument is lost in the granular synthesis, the tracks are abstracted enough to provoke your own interpretations and critical judgements. The vocals' inclusion gives rise to questions, and the ambiguity of Wordplay for Working Bees creates an architecture that facilitates debate. It's not just escapist or hedonistic dance music, but a concerted, dissonant effort to challenge the listener's preconceptions. Composed as it is of field recordings from parks, streets and Lucy's apartment, it's difficult not to see this as -- at least in part -- a depiction of Berlin. Wordplay for Working Bees is certainly influenced by the sounds coming from Berlin's clubs, galleries and forgotten pockets. Lucy holds a mirror up to the Hauptstadt, only to distort and redefine its reflection. The abstraction and processing of the album's subject matter has a painterly quality and it's evident that in creating Wordplay for Working Bees Lucy slaved with technology to master it so brilliantly. Co-mixed and mastered by Artefacts Mastering, Berlin.
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CD
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SA 002CD
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2011 release. Xhin's debut album on Stroboscopic Artefacts, Sword, showcases the breath of his vision. As the second full-length release on Stroboscopic Artefacts, Sword stretches the remit of the label's identity ever further. Produced and recorded in Singapore, Xhin plucks sounds from the outer edges of electronic music and fuses them together. Xhin's approach revels not only in a hybrid sound palette, it's also an album designed for multiple contexts. It's a record typified by duality. Xhin's process seamlessly traverses analog and digital production, and Sword harbors electronic music that ranges from brutal club sounds to deep and delicate murmurs. "The Secret Closet" depicts a dream state in frosted tones and icy ambience that is returned to again with the discordant jangles of "Inside." "Wood" picks up the motive once more. At the kernel of "Wood" is melody that Xhin composed on the piano and then digitally processed into a state of bliss. However, Sword refuses to languish in a romantic hinterland and the ambience is offset by aggressive, weighty cuts. "Fox and Wolves" is Xhin ripping into any nostalgia that opening track "The Secret Closet" promised. Equally, "Teeth" gnashes and writhes over a bed of deep beats. "Vent" is fortified with metallic rasps and built from the droning aggression that characterized Xhin's early Stroboscopic Artefacts releases. Even at its darkest, its most violent, Swords envisions the club as a place of refuge. Xhin creates allusions with track titles that snatch images from a post-modern fairytale: woods, wolves, foxes, wardrobes. Xhin appropriates the fairytale hero's sword and the weapon becomes symbolic of a struggle, a tool against the void. A way out of dystopia. Journeying to the crispy cusp of experimentation and musical questioning, Sword is one of those rare creations that emerge when a producer has absolute artistic freedom. The 10 tracks navigate parallels and paradoxes, allowing Xhin to cut a deft mark across the album format.
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12"
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SA 003EP
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2010 release. Stroboscopic Artefacts' third release sees label owner Lucy and underground trailblazer Ercolino, inspired by novelist Michael Ende's imagery, create two visions of a nihilistic future. The 12'' begins with "Gmork," a portrait of a terrifying beast: slinking basslines come from its black heartbeat and white noise grows from its unearthly appetites. The story gets even bleaker with "So the Nothing Grows Stronger," a narrative of blips, bleeps, and squeals. This extreme dub techno track is the sound of the insurgence.
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12"
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SA 005EP
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2010 release. Frank Martiniq explores a whole new sonic identity on this unique 12". "Blast Corps" features a surge of delayed bass line. Crispy static rises from below and echoes swoop and simmer. The 4/4 structure is infused with far-off blips and the dusty sizzles of low-pitched white noise. On "Dark Star," warm dub keeps the sound organic while the other elements pull together around its weight before culminating with the closer, "Lovelane."
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12"
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SA 013EP
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$12.50
NOT IN STOCK, SPECIAL ORDER
Lucy's Banality of Evil EP is inspired by Hannah Arendt's writings on conformity and totalitarianism and makes for provocative listening. "Superior Orders" is an off kilter introduction: Lucy took synth lines that Roll The Dice crafted and broke them down, revealing their malevolence. "Stanford Prison" layers wistful top lines over driving bass, creating a fluid, transitory atmosphere. "Milgram Experiment" opens with a beautifully simple sequence and splinters into deep, warm dub. The track includes voices, but these are not catchy, euphoric vocals.
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