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LP
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EMEGO 243LP
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Originally developed as a film score, Takt Der Arbeit is inspired by a handful of industrial and instructional films from the early 1960s until the early 1990s that portray different forms of work. Felix Kubin translates these historic documents into a musical poem of conceptual depth. Takt Der Arbeit - "the beat of work" - is not only serving as a title but also as constructive element in this endeavor. Being hunted down by the ever-accelerated pulse of our reality is an omnipresent issue in capitalist societies of the Western world. Living in times of constant exhaustion, it's not only our bodies that have been disciplined by and synchronized to the rhythms of working processes, but also our minds that rage in the tempo of our surroundings. Following an almost analytical effort, Kubin and an ensemble of three percussionists investigate the different qualities and intensities of time that are catalyzed in working processes. While picking up precise temporal and motoric motives of the films, condensing paces and excavating rhythmic patterns, the ensemble maps out an animist choreography, shifting from a time when labor was still relying on bodily efforts to a time when machines and ticking clocks seem to reign and model human perception. While side A is dedicated to procedures that are still based on manual and mechanical movement, side B is inspired by the digital age, marked by invisible processes and subcutaneous pulses that humans internalize. The result is a critical and poetic reflection on the rhythms of our daily life and yet another example of Felix Kubin's skills as a composer, placing him in the field of orchestral music. Works commissioned by NDR das neue werk (North German Radio). Personnel: Felix Kubin - organ, electronics, sampler; Miłosz Pękala - vibraphone, xylophone, sampler, percussion, effects; Magdalena Kordylasińska - marimba, percussion, effects; Hubert Zemler - glockenspiel, drums, percussion. Artwork by Stephen O'Malley; Engineered by Robert Migas; Mixed by Tobias Levin; Mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
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12"
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ITS 013EP
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Felix Kubin delivers three masterpieces: "I Can't Sleep," an ode to insomnia; "Polarisation," two poles of Kubinski Dadaism; and "Taucher," which starts deep under the sea and struggles with full pressure and energy to the surface. "I Can't Sleep" features vocals by Giada Pesce. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Vinyl only.
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2LP
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ZZ 2028LP
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Felix Kubin, the nuclear powered horseman of apocalyptic dance music, is back. The manic producer and agitator brings forth a new solo album. Zemsta Plutona strikes through our living room like lightning, leaving scorch marks and enlightened souls. His inciting machinations have multiplied over the past years and there seems to be no end in sight. A master of absurd self-staging, his work blurs the boundaries between sci-fi pop, conceptual chamber music, radio play, theatre and film. He prefers futuristic costumes and experimental haircuts, cultivating a fashion style somewhere between Kim Jong-il and Captain Kirk. But most of all Kubin is a brilliant composer and an errant arranger. The opening track, "Lightning Strikes" sets the path: The rhythm from a distorted human beatbox, enervating synth lines and an operatic chorus result in a Kubin hit par excellence. "Atomium Vertigo" opens the door to a magnetic groove to which Nicolas Ekla (Lem, Les Brochettes) murmurs foggy French negations. "Nachts im Park" (At Night in the Park), on the other hand, sounds like a soundtrack to a modern Edgar Wallace thriller: retro-futuristic computer music, the opposite of easy listening, but flirting with it. Whichever piece attracts you on this timeless album -- the snappy "Flies Without Memory" or the ghostly "Restez en Ligne" -- Kubin forever sounds like himself and always sounds new. An example of something new here is the inclusion of amplified acoustic instruments like drums, trumpet, trombone or laundry rack. In "Piscine Résonnez!" synth-sequences and fanfare sounds wander around while angry French girls yell something about manta rays in the swimming pool. Kubin dedicates himself to the great theme of feeling controlled remotely in "Der Kaiser ist Gestorben" (The Kaiser is Dead). Here, our life is steered by an invisible hand; a commemoration on existentialism and the topos of urban alienation. Mixed by Tobias Levin, this double LP version of Zemsta Plutona contains two vinyl-only bonus tracks and is Kubin's first release for German label ZickZack.
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2LP
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ITS 008LP
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2LP version. Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence (TXRF) is a method used to analyze the surfaces of materials by firing extremely flat X-rays. Subsequently, the physicist Joachim Knoth (1941-2004) developed a patent for precise measurement of defects in semiconductor chips. In 10 sequenced-based electronic miniatures, Felix Kubin, who presently consists of dangerous uninsulated powerlines, conducts the TXRF through an acoustical test arrangement. The experiment consists solely of a synthesizer, filter and sequencer. Full-bodied consecutive organisms arise out of which kaleidoscopic iridescent blossoms sprout. At times they appear as acoustic by-products of high energy discharges on an X-ray picture and sometimes as quiescent fluorescent images. Who knows when the experiment will come to an end? Will X-rays break at irregularities? Will transparent ears crawl over fixtures and make laboratory benches corrode? In view of the entire event's musical beauty, all these questions are completely unimportant. Felix Kubin is one of electronic music's most dynamic and versatile personalities. A love-child of the home recording era, his various experiments and epithets include radio playwright, composer of Futurist and Dadatronic experimental pop as well as chamber orchestra music, filmmaker, incendiary performer, record label owner, lecturer and curator. He has made artwork in all sorts of fields since the 1980s, after studying media art at the ArtEZ Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Enschede, Netherlands and illustration/animation at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg. Kubin's music is saturated with enthusiasm for disharmonic pop, industrial noise, and 20th-century avant-garde music.
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CD
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ITS 008CD
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Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence (TXRF)* is a method used to analyze the surfaces of materials by firing extremely flat X-rays. Subsequently, the physicist Joachim Knoth (1941-2004) developed a patent for precise measurement of defects in semiconductor chips. In 10 sequenced-based electronic miniatures, Felix Kubin, who presently consists of dangerous uninsulated powerlines, conducts the TXRF through an acoustical test arrangement. The experiment consists solely of a synthesizer, filter and sequencer. Full-bodied consecutive organisms arise out of which kaleidoscopic iridescent blossoms sprout. At times they appear as acoustic by-products of high energy discharges on an X-ray picture and sometimes as quiescent fluorescent images. Who knows when the experiment will come to an end? Will X-rays break at irregularities? Will transparent ears crawl over fixtures and make laboratory benches corrode? In view of the entire event's musical beauty, all these questions are completely unimportant. Felix Kubin is one of electronic music's most dynamic and versatile personalities. A love-child of the home recording era, his various experiments and epithets include radio playwright, composer of Futurist and Dadatronic experimental pop as well as chamber orchestra music, filmmaker, incendiary performer, record label owner, lecturer and curator. He has made artwork in all sorts of fields since the 1980s, after studying media art at the ArtEZ Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Enschede, Netherlands and illustration/animation at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg. Kubin's music is saturated with enthusiasm for disharmonic pop, industrial noise, and 20th-century avant-garde music.
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