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2LP
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DNLP 005LP
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Karl O'Connor's banging Regis 1998 blueprint is back in circulation for the techno ultras. The track list has been reshuffled from all previous versions. The A-side now runs through "Hands Of A Stranger" and the cold pipes of "Disease Through Affection", and is backed with the chewy grind of "Body Unknown" and the tonkin' hustle of "Barriers", while the C-side revolves "Concentrate" along with three hefty locked grooves and the D-side includes "Escape From Yourself" and the panic-inducing trample of "Indifference". It hardly needs to be reiterated but this set includes some of the meanest examples of late '90s UK techno, and more specifically, the Birmingham sound that Regis forged so definitively with this album, alongside efforts by his peers, Surgeon, Female, and Mick Harris. If you weren't party to the original pressing, this one stands out thanks to the remastering, which really highlights the pebbledash grain and clangorous industrial atmospheres of the original recordings, which surely set this record and sound apart from the crowd. Entirely remastered at Dubplates & Mastering and cut with three bonus locked grooves not found on the 1998, 2003, or 2012 editions. Includes new artwork. Edition of 500.
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2LP
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DWN 003LP
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Necklace Of Bites is a vital volley of early Regis artillery sourced from 12"s issued by Downwards c. 1998-2000. Effectively a reshuffle of his 2000AD self-titled CD compilation of 12"-only cuts, it features his Jim Jones-sampling "Solution (Voice)" amid a ruck of prime, dark, and killer late '90s techno girders. Revolving definitively monotone and snaky templates for the Birmingham techno sound forged by Regis (alongside Surgeon, Female, Mick Harris, and Justin Broadrick), Necklace Of Bites is built in the driving, distorted, and highly utilitarian style that spilled out of Brum's Q Club in the mid '90s, and which continues to infect the sets of DJs such as Helena Hauff and Blawan well into 2019. Back before main room techno became meme-ified as "business techno", these tracks were the Black Country shirehorses of peak-time DJ slots across the UK, EU, and the world. Influenced as much by Jeff Mills's Axis and Purpose Maker 12"s and hard-ass Chicago house as original '80s industrial and post-punk, the dozen tracks epitomize Regis's signature distillation of proper, blue collar club sounds, made for those who like to play hard and all night, and as such they're future-proofed for use over 20 years later. In particular, the set highlights Regis's hypnotically sexy and arguably rare use of vocal sampling in the inexorable, militant charges of "Execution Ground", "Baptism", and "Purification (Endless)", while his use of a muffled Jim Jones sample on "Solution (Voices)" predates his use of Jones in BMB by half a decade. More to the point, the compilation also holds precious DJ tool bruisers in the likes of his lip-bitingly infectious roller "Wound Us", and the industrial galvanics of "Adolescence" and "Rites" that still kill in the modern day. Newly remastered and vinyl cut at Dubplates & Mastering. Edition of 500.
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Cassette
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HOS 588CS
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Play Neutral is the second edition of Regis' "mix tape" from Hospital Productions 20 Years. It's unclear exactly what this is and where the edits being and end in true Regis style. Post-punk electronic industrial psych madness, nice silver print tape cover.
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12"
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CITI 023EP
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"Cititrax is proud to present rare live recordings from Birmingham techno legend Regis. The 12" EP features recently uncovered recordings of Regis playing live in New York City on January 4th, 1997 at the famed New York Film Academy. Original tapes discovered by Evan Kreeger, studio work/transfers done by James Ruskin in London and audio mastered by Veronica Vasicka in New York. The EP will be pressed on 160 gram clear red vinyl and housed in a gloss sleeve, featuring text by Evan Kreeger. An excerpt is below: 'Gymnastics broke techno - first time performed! Regis has recreated this show for you - from the tapes in storage Over twenty years later - You're welcome! You are born! Now you can say you were there - rather than Skavoovee chore Damage and flame was our desire for this fight Two fans rebuffed tossed cinderblocks thru the front doors that night Locking up the Film Academy was only pageantry and a lie Nothing secure anymore - just crouch down - on your knees - crawl inside"
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2LP
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DNLP 002R-LP
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For the 21st anniversary of Regis's pivotal debut album, the Brum techno overlord has remade the scene of the crime from original stems and salvaged 8-track tapes. The unyielding results effectively present a doctored version of his seminal -- some may say game-changing -- record, featuring new studio versions and unreleased sequences. It's basically a stronger, fitter version of his most prized LP, loaded with sounds as brutally functional as the city which birthed them. Originally recorded in September 1996 in Room 406, Digbeth, Birmingham aka Scorn's studio -- sandwiched between Tony De Vit and Broadcast's recording spaces -- Regis used one drum machine, one synth, and one FX unit to nail home a back-to-basics approach to techno; one inspired as much by the direct immediacy of Chicago house as the febrile DJ sets of Jeff Mills, but also drawing a crucial "X factor" from his background as a bit of a hooligan, with form in a number of post-industrial, EBM, and punk units. When Gymnastics first hit the 'floor, it was considered shocking anathema to the swell of manicured, proggy arrangements which were by then dominating the spotlight of British dance in clubs and the media. It was loopy, stripped-to-the-bone, and shark-eyed, always moving forward and without the faintest recourse to melody or harmony -- simply reveling in the gnashing tension and swerve of raw, clattering drum machines, and monophonic synth jabs. Big Beat or trance it fucking well wasn't. 21 years later its lip-biting force is now felt stronger than ever. From the grumbling refusal of "We Said No" and the austere wall-banger "Allies" that boot off the album, through the 16th note nag of "Translation" to the rictus jag of "Sand" and the metallic bite of "The Black Freighter", this is timeless, primal dance music that still causes friction wherever it's deployed. James Brown is dead. Long live Regis. New reworked artwork (original featured the Twin Towers photographed in 1996). Remastered and cut by Matt Colton.
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2LP
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BLACKEST 013LP
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Double LP version. Pressed at Optimal and housed in full-color sleeve. Contains eight tracks (including the rare, highly sought-after Raime, Vatican Shadow, and "Blinding Horses" remixes) and includes MP3/FLAC download code for all 12 tracks included on the CD.
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CD
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BLACKEST 013CD
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Manbait is a survey of Regis's 2010-'15 productions and remixes for Blackest Ever Black. In addition to three originals (in several different versions) and his celebrated remixes of Raime, Vatican Shadow, Ike Yard, and Dalhous, it features three previously unreleased tracks: a Regis take on a lost song by his own teenage synth-punk group Family Sex, an alternate mix of Tropic of Cancer's "Plant Lilies at My Head," and an edit of his own "Blinding Horses." Regis -- real name Karl O'Connor -- requires little in the way of introduction. Founder of the Downwards label, lynchpin of the late Sandwell District collective, one half of British Murder Boys (with Surgeon), and instigator of numerous other projects (among them Ugandan Methods, Concrete Fence, Kalon, and Sandra Electronics), the eternally shape-shifting O'Connor is one of techno's last true visionaries. O'Connor's arrival on Blackest Ever Black in 2010 coincided with a radical recalibration, and heightening, of his production work, and the tracks collected on Manbait document nothing less than an artist at the peak of his powers. One can hear elements of Sandwell District's Berlin-incubated warehouse minimalism, the brutish dancefloor provocations of Regis's '90s Downwards material (what will always be known, against his wishes, as 'The Birmingham Sound'), the DIY drone-pop and darkwave of Sandra Electronics, the high-torque breakbeat experiments of British Murder Boys. Throughout the listener is treated to some of the most morbidly atmospheric sound design in all electronic music (the shadowplay of '80s goth and industrial made thrillingly contemporary), and to urgent, cyclical, ruthlessly avant-garde drum-programming informed by jungle, dubstep, and grime... but always unmistakably, irreducibly Regis. Manbait's key track actually predates O'Connor's association with Blackest Ever Black by several months: "C U 1," a nauseous, low-slung production credited to his alias Cub, and originally self-released, incognito, on an imprint of the same name in April 2010. With its coarsely broken-beat, disarmingly slow tempo, and deep pools of low-end pressure, it set the tone for O'Connor's productions in the ensuing half-decade. In 2015, five years after its release, it's still pretty much untouchable. All tracks mastered and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy, London, except "Loss (Regis Version)," mastered by Veronica Vasicka, and "C U 1," mastered by CGB at Dubplates & Mastering. CD housed in full-color digipak. With exquisite cover art (Survivor, 1987) by none other than Val Denham, this is an anthology that no conscientious stableboy or girl can refuse. Life hurts!
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