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viewing 1 To 11 of 11 items
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LP
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EMEGO 252LP
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Editions Mego present the latest addition to the compelling discography of Thomas Brinkmann. Throughout his career Brinkmann has focused on the human operating amongst industry alongside rhythms that manifest as a result of technological advancement. With this new release Brinkmann makes a U-turn, looking back to the early industrial age. Comprised of recordings of various looms, Raupenbahn investigates the sonic properties and consequences of the first automatic loom as constructed by Jacques de Vaucanson in 1745. Thomas Brinkmann once again adheres to his tendency for clarity and simplicity whilst further investigating not only the sound and rhythms of the machines (looms) but also what role they serve in society and what consequences they have on the environment. Raupenbahn presents 21 tracks in total, 11 featured on the vinyl, the remaining ten as digital bonus tracks. The majority of recordings were undertaken by Brinkmann in 2017 with a Neumann KM 184 stereo set. Additional recordings were sourced with permission from Monika Widzicka recs. from 2014 Central Museum of Textiles Łódź, Poland. Each piece presents a diversity of material which borders on the breathtaking and beautiful in richness and complexity. The various looms unravel rhythms and patterns unexpected from machines of the early industrial age. The loom holds a significant role in shaping our world being the catalyst for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine which, alongside the subsequent work of Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace, paved the way for modern computing. There is a linage of the loom that fits succinctly in Brinkmann's overall argument. Here we encounter a parallel between machine driven economies and the music that rose from such places, consider the Sheffield steel industries, the Manchester weaving industry or the Rhineland/Düsseldorf loom and machine industry. Is it a coincidence that the practice of such machines in the environment gave rise to today's predilection for electronic dance music, in pop, soundtracks, etc. Raupenbahn features no treatment or processing and explicitly displays varying tempo and timbres which ascertain a wide range of acoustic structures. The artwork features Ingrid Wiener, Rosemarie Trockel, and Alexandra Bircken, three different generations who would with ideas of fabric weaving, looming, and the like. This exceptional release works on a number of levels alongside it's striking sonic palette. The digital bonus tracks (and the LP tracks) can be redeemed with download card that comes with the LP.
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2LP
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EMEGO 224LP
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Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve. "How many can get a personal sound out of a fucking piano?!" - Lee Konitz. Thomas Brinkmann takes his seductive reductionism to the next level with A 1000 Keys, a harsh meditation on the expressive qualities of digital sound production. In translating the timbre of a grand piano into binary codes, thus rebuilding its corpus with "0 and 1s", Brinkmann subverts the sensual qualities of this proto-romantic instrument in a sardonic way. Replacing the musician with a mathematically precise series of frenetic repetition and intriguingly dissonant difference, the result sounds at times like a violent ride through the brains of Schönberg or Webern, drained in amphetamines, at others like Feldman's ephemeral sketches or Russolo's futurist outburst. Brinkmann's conceptual framework is resonating in the track titles. Using shortcuts of international airports, he refers to non-places that establish their own space-and-time continuum, while lacking individual identity and history. These functional scenarios are sterile passages for anonymous, objectified masses, at the same time there's hardly a better place to grasp the very subjective character of time. A 1000 Keys is a fatal homage to minimalism and a consequent denial of virtuosity and the idea of creative genius. Paraphrasing the romantic idea of human perfection, Brinkmann found a way to create sonic algorithms of tenderness and brutality, establishing dramatic expressiveness in his constructivist analytics. The result is of radical beauty. Dedicated to Conlon Nancarrow.
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CD
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EMEGO 224CD
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"How many can get a personal sound out of a fucking piano?!" - Lee Konitz. Thomas Brinkmann takes his seductive reductionism to the next level with A 1000 Keys, a harsh meditation on the expressive qualities of digital sound production. In translating the timbre of a grand piano into binary codes, thus rebuilding its corpus with "0 and 1s", Brinkmann subverts the sensual qualities of this proto-romantic instrument in a sardonic way. Replacing the musician with a mathematically precise series of frenetic repetition and intriguingly dissonant difference, the result sounds at times like a violent ride through the brains of Schönberg or Webern, drained in amphetamines, at others like Feldman's ephemeral sketches or Russolo's futurist outburst. Brinkmann's conceptual framework is resonating in the track titles. Using shortcuts of international airports, he refers to non-places that establish their own space-and-time continuum, while lacking individual identity and history. These functional scenarios are sterile passages for anonymous, objectified masses, at the same time there's hardly a better place to grasp the very subjective character of time. A 1000 Keys is a fatal homage to minimalism and a consequent denial of virtuosity and the idea of creative genius. Paraphrasing the romantic idea of human perfection, Brinkmann found a way to create sonic algorithms of tenderness and brutality, establishing dramatic expressiveness in his constructivist analytics. The result is of radical beauty. Dedicated to Conlon Nancarrow.
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2LP
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EMEGO 204LP
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Gatefold double LP version.
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CD
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EMEGO 204CD
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Thomas Brinkmann is renowned for audio works that hover among forms such as techno, minimalism, and ambient. Alongside such pioneering works as Klick (2000), Studio 1 - Variationen (1997), and 2012's duo with Oren Ambarchi, The Mortimer Trap (BT 006CD), with What You Hear (Is What You Hear) Brinkmann moves further to separate his art, not only from descriptive musical terms that oppress creative output, but also from the notion of an author in the act of creation. The 11 tracks on display form a series of self-perpetuating rhythms that exist more as sound structures than as any kind of traditional sound forms. Any associations, emotions, and reactions are purely in the reasoning of the listener as the artist makes a strong and deliberate move away from intent. This is a strident development in the conceptual thinking of Brinkmann's solid career, one that places the listener simultaneously inside and outside objective parameters. Dedicated to Zbigniew Karwkowski. Design by Stephen O'Malley.
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12"
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CURLE 003P-EP
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A rare release from one of minimal house and techno's most respected icons, Thomas Brinkmann. "Isch" is a much sought-after track taken from a record that has been out of print for many years, originally made for the Mutek festival in 2002. Mr. Brinkmann chose the remixer, Soulphiction, whose turnout is nothing short of a future classic -- perhaps even his best rework to date. An essential release in a limited pressing of 500 copies, pressed on blue-colored vinyl.
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CD
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MAXE 016CD
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Germany's legendary label-owner, remixer and prolific experimentalist Thomas Brinkmann presents the follow-up to Klick Revolution. Please note: there is NO TECHNO on this album. The source of inspiration is a strange mix between Suicide, Trent Reznor, Joy Division, old Tuxedomoon, and Another Day On Earth-era Brian Eno. Ten tracks start up with piano and the broken arrangement between distorted guitars and bass -- no drums, no beats, just lyrics from Tuxedomoon's Winston Tong. "Spiral" is also without drums and is an adaptation of artist Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" earthwork in Utah's Great Salt Lake, elucidating the endings and beginnings between two people in love. "Birth & Death" twists out into heavier territory with drums and plenty of distorted guitars and "Meadow" is enhanced with lyrics by the Russian poet and essayist, Joseph Brodsky. "Souls" is a funky little number with lyrics by poet Marina Tsvetaeva and "2 Suns" is a heavy 100bpm stomper with Japanese lyrics, yet is totally unusable on 128bpm dancefloors. "Uselessness" is a dark, ambient, spoken-word track also based on the powerful metaphors of Robert Smithson. "It's Just" softly rocks right into the tune of "When Horses Die..." -- a Velimir Chlebnikov poem mixed with Brodsky and a hint of the Mamas & The Papas. The album finishes as it began, but without words and nothing left to say. Just piano, cello and a distorted guitar.
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CD
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MAXE 011CD
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Germany's legendary label-owner, remixer and prolific experimentalist Thomas Brinkmann offers a tribute to the pinball machine, on Klick Revolution. These tracks deal with the concept of the locked box with the inclined plane, as the player ponders his "questionary about luck, the slide of the things into the logic of decline," as Brinkmann states. This is a new game with turntables -- not unlike the 2001 conceptual Klick release, but this time the player is trying to turn the fixed medium of the locked box into a landscape where the klicks are sounds from the past, confronting and reacting against bumpers, ramps and logs. These implements become symbols of the obstacle of ideas in music -- the sound of Sisyphus playing pinball with a rolling stone, in the ultimate expression of the tragedy of fun. These klick revolutions are based on live sets performed during the last two years, and the variations within the live context are apparent: each track builds on a theme, with different sideways escape routes using various locked-groove records as tools (the specific records Brinkmann used for these sets can be found in the 18-page booklet in poster-format accompanying this release). A pinball machine is a locked box filled with structured, confronted noises and endless thematic possibility: start the game of Klick Revolution now.
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12"
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MAX.I 001EP
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Yet another Brinkmann-related concept cover EP devoted to the Michael Jackson chart breakers "Rock With Me" and "I Can't Help It." Nikakoi wrote the new string arrangements, while Brinkmann/Schmickler are responsible for the rest. The A-side R'n'B version of "Rock With Me" is a stomper followed by an extra sweet house version of the same track. "I Can't Help It" is a straight house version followed by a very soft broken beat version. The last tracks on both sides are the pure string arrangements. The sleeve is not about porno, it's about gene technology.
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CD
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MAXE 009CD
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Germany's legendary label-owner, remixer and experimentalist Thomas Brinkmann returns with his lucky number 13 -- another full-length release of unmatchable, patented isolationist dub-inspired techno. Lucky Hands is the culmination of action, will, coincidence and two lucky hands. With its easily charming appeal and intellectually-accessible funkiness, this release is both frivolous and heavy, and one of the best semi-pop productions of the nearest past. "Maschine" is a very diverse clash of light and murk that summons both Kraftwerk and Rammstein, sliding from straight dance to melodic vocal dub, then marching into the dark German woods. But sometimes even Mr. Morrissey can be heavier, as in "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get," the Smiths tune here augmented and darkened by lovely vocals from Tusia Beridze (aka TBA). Even "Lucky Hands" stumbles upon Talking Heads skronky angularity better than the band itself. The album finishes with a stunning contribution from Marco Palmieri, who combined some of the drums taken from "isch/ROW" with the optimistic and timeless sounds from '20s swing and gypsy jazz musician Django Reinhard. Truly, it is not only luck, but experience and talent that make things happen for Mr. Brinkmann.
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12"
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MAX 3
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Return of the long dormant Max label (Ernst's non-color-coded brother-like imprint). Last release was Markus Schmikler's storming "Daniel/Christian" 12" in 1999. "2 wild & quirky acid-like trax to burn the house down!"
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viewing 1 To 11 of 11 items
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