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CD
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KOMP 055CD
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With 70+ releases, 40+ remixes, 75+ compilation appearances and still counting in under 4 years, prolific would be an understatement to one of today's youngest and most invigorating producers in dance music today -- Sweden's John Dahlbäck. He's covered the vast spectrum of the electronic music community in record time; from his first recording for the prestigious Chicago-based Deep4life imprint, being a major force behind Steve Bug's house label Dessous, his own 10 releases on his renowned imprint Pickadoll, the timeless contributions to Morris Audio, his collaborations with his equally fruitful cousin Jesper Dahlbäck as Hugg & Pepp, remixing Slamm for Soma, Eric Prydz for Ministry Of Sound and 12"s on their own Dahlbäck label, PLUS their massive single as Dahlbäck & Dahlbäck for Turbo and that breakthrough remix for The Knife. We've barely scratched the surface as his credits run longer than the end-list of Lord Of The Rings. It's only natural when one of '90s techno's most copious musicians and Kompakt co-owner Wolfgang Voigt struck a personal affinity to John Dahlbäck when he reached out to Kompakt under his new techno alias, Hug. At that point, a new imprint (aptly titled K2) was being developed in attempts to bring a true form of minimal techno back to the Kompakt fold. Dahlbäck had found a versatile method to create playful, melodic and tremendously functional minimal techno for what would become his first EP, The Angry Ghost, for K2 (and the 2nd release for the imprint). Now with four singles under his belt for the imprint as Hug, Dahlbäck's releases have helped build the identity (and successes) of K2, so it's fitting that he be the first musician to deliver the first full-length commemorating an artist from the imprint. Heroes is not a collection of these 12" singles (though the album features two favorites, "Raido" and "Birds," previously released on K2) but a tremendously adherent album that reflects the full-sounding nature of his Hug project in a heterogeneous fashion -- analog meets digital in the most fundamental of ways.
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2LP
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KOM 150LP
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12"
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K2 015EP
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4th John Dahlbäck 12" on this Kompakt-subsidiary label. "I feel I'm fallin' apart 'cos I know I've lost my guardian angel. A fleetin' glimpse of your heart losin' right from the start -- no return an' things will never be the same. I feel I'm fallin' apart 'cos I know I've lost my guardian angel...Try to find the words that show I sympathise words of comfort words that never criticise though I know you simply laughin' at me I just can't stop an' simply let it be. Where are all those feelin's of my yesterdays feelin's now I have bring back those bad ole ways. Though I know you wanna turn an' blow I just can't stop an' simply let you go. I feel I'm fallin' apart 'cos I know I've lost my guardian angel... Let me see you smile once more that special way warm as summer on a chilly winter's day though i know you're simply laughin' at me I just can't stop an' simply let it be. I feel I'm fallin' apart 'cos I know I've lost my guardian angel."
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12"
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K2 012EP
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"A massive alternative to the enormous flood of similar sounding minimal techno records where you often can't differentiate between the 'original' and the 'imitation,' Hug is real music that one feels and needs. Hug is the glamorous Baroque techno derived from a hyperactive, exceptional talent. It's the third release from the Swede John Dahlback for Kompakt's super-correct-techno-sub-label of hearts, K2. And these three delightfully skillful and elegantly grooving tracks on 'The Platform' are as smart and competently selected as the two forerunners; The Angry Ghost -- K2 02, and The Happy Monster -- K2 05. And if anybody thinks that this is 'minimal,' ok then."
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12"
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K2 005EP
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"This is too much. How can a 20 year old guy can do stuff like this? Darn it... This is so fresh! The groove gets all freaky but it's still precise as a Swiss clock. The sounds make your brain go: 'Whow?' and your feet shout 'Shut up and dance!' somebody might have said that before but we say it once again: John Dahlbäck is heaven sent. The jack of the jacks."
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12"
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K2 002EP
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Second release on this Kompakt subsidiary label. "The digital ideal of life has finally shifted the search for the meaning, the search for a holistic cultural ideal on to a formal level. The digital concept to reality does not propagate any new objectives or visions, but a different kind of reality rapport and the realisation of wishes. Knowing how instead of knowing where. In today's youth culture, the digital concept of reality has reached its virtuoso peak, but at the same time, it is confronted with the traditional concept of an analog life: like a record, the music of life will only start sounding by tediously and constantly struggling through the rills of development. You must accept your own, meandering life script or lifestyle and follow your destiny, even if you are using yourself up and have to accept a kind of painful friction. And only then, you will feel the pulsing life. John Dahlbaeck is not an unknown artist. And we would like to welcome this fresh, young and active guy from Sweden for the first time on Kompakt with his new project called Hug. The Angry Ghost includes three hot tracks showing usually straight John Dahlbaeck from a rather differentiated, almost playful, melodic side."
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