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CD
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STRIKE 161CD
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Europa, the second album from Shrubbn!!, the duo of Ulli Bomans (Schieres) and Marco Haas (T.Raumschmiere), displays a map of Europe on its cover, as might be expected from the title. The song titles on Europa also draw from the inexhaustible riches of the dialects and villages. From a musical perspective, this record is like an amazing journey through a Europe that is fed by more than just numbers, tables and statistics. Unlike its predecessor Echos (STRIKE 136LP, 2012), which represented something rather hidden and gloomy, Europa changes direction towards land and people. All the tracks on Europa are named after cities. "Elk" is the sound of the universe screeching as it lands on earth. With saw-toothed flowers and an utterly beautiful intro, the universe finally lands on the lost Alp. "Lom" is cubist electronics over a dense beat. "Eskilstuna", somewhere in Scandinavia, sounds something like snow and rock crystal. One melody after another sits between the round and beautifully layered chord pads. "Vovchans'ki" is a typical track from the Europa phase - A European yearning for the avant-gardist of 1922, modern and extremely brilliant. "Äthäri" sees Schieres and T.Raumschmiere manoeuver through snapshots, waves and highways in a meadow from elsewhere. "Anenii Noi" is a fantastic Shrubbn!! track that still breathes the spirit of Echos. It has a wonderful delayed beat, painted in tonal drums. With "Mondragon", a European spirit is conjured again, one that is much freer and more beautiful, and seems lost for nearly 100 years - crashing layers of melodies and clear sounds of a modern age from the past. "Shumen", previously called "Kolarowgrad", wanders from A to B. "Freistritz an der Gail" is composed of sound. Shrubbn!! builds a wall-of-sound out of hisses, synth teeth and flashes of genius. "Drunen" and "Nöo" are sort of downbeat, but definitely beat. Very dream-like and beautiful. "Nea Koroni" sounds a bit like the Alps and the mountains and valleys and meadows and bells. Shrubbn!! go through "Hrafnagil" and leave the listener in "Leirbotn". If the previous album Echos can be described as a profoundly intense journey through spaces and depths, reverb and shaft, Europa warms up like a dream landscape of earth and clay. The tracks have their own dialects; they are either coming from or traveling to someplace. There are colorations and stories told.
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LP
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STRIKE 161LP
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LP version. Includes download code. Europa, the second album from Shrubbn!!, the duo of Ulli Bomans (Schieres) and Marco Haas (T.Raumschmiere), displays a map of Europe on its cover, as might be expected from the title. The song titles on Europa also draw from the inexhaustible riches of the dialects and villages. From a musical perspective, this record is like an amazing journey through a Europe that is fed by more than just numbers, tables and statistics. Unlike its predecessor Echos (STRIKE 136LP, 2012), which represented something rather hidden and gloomy, Europa changes direction towards land and people. All the tracks on Europa are named after cities. "Elk" is the sound of the universe screeching as it lands on earth. With saw-toothed flowers and an utterly beautiful intro, the universe finally lands on the lost Alp. "Lom" is cubist electronics over a dense beat. "Eskilstuna", somewhere in Scandinavia, sounds something like snow and rock crystal. One melody after another sits between the round and beautifully layered chord pads. "Vovchans'ki" is a typical track from the Europa phase - A European yearning for the avant-gardist of 1922, modern and extremely brilliant. "Äthäri" sees Schieres and T.Raumschmiere manoeuver through snapshots, waves and highways in a meadow from elsewhere. "Anenii Noi" is a fantastic Shrubbn!! track that still breathes the spirit of Echos. It has a wonderful delayed beat, painted in tonal drums. With "Mondragon", a European spirit is conjured again, one that is much freer and more beautiful, and seems lost for nearly 100 years - crashing layers of melodies and clear sounds of a modern age from the past. "Shumen", previously called "Kolarowgrad", wanders from A to B. "Freistritz an der Gail" is composed of sound. Shrubbn!! builds a wall-of-sound out of hisses, synth teeth and flashes of genius. "Drunen" and "Nöo" are sort of downbeat, but definitely beat. Very dream-like and beautiful. "Nea Koroni" sounds a bit like the Alps and the mountains and valleys and meadows and bells. Shrubbn!! go through "Hrafnagil" and leave the listener in "Leirbotn". If the previous album Echos can be described as a profoundly intense journey through spaces and depths, reverb and shaft, Europa warms up like a dream landscape of earth and clay. The tracks have their own dialects; they are either coming from or traveling to someplace. There are colorations and stories told.
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2LP
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STRIKE 136LP
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Shrubbn!! have been around for a cool 15 years -- and that's exactly how long everyone has been waiting for their debut album. After all, buddies Ulli Bormans (aka Schieres) and Marco Haas (aka T.Raumschmiere) preferred to sling out the odd Shrubbn!! track on different, almost forgotten labels whenever they felt like getting it together. Now, the duo surprise and delight us with a veritable gem of a record. Their long distance debut Echos follows an upbeat scientific credo of art for text. Pushing the computer aside, Ulli and Marco crafted 14 pulsating, deep and dubby tracks caught up between ambient and beats -- a thick, full sound, a call of the deep with plenty of passion for reverb and bass. Numbering the tracks (instead of real titles) simply made sense as they follow the logic of a meandering session or, rather, a true exploration, executed with plenty of exactitude. And this time around, it's all in the details, starting with the release format: for Echos, Shrubbn!! say no to the prevalent CD format in favor of a truly stunning vinyl edition -- a pleasure for both ears and eyes. Together with Berlin video experts Transforma, the duo also came up with a clever live concept that translates Shrubbn!!'s music to imagery (for a quick glimpse of this aesthetic tour de force, take a peek at Transforma's crisp cover art). And the latter have been busy carving their own niche in the world of art -- slow and steady, yet entirely uncompromising -- with works ranging from Apparat's stunning club set to their own music film Synken and countless concepts or performances for landmark festivals like Club Transmediale. Backed by this inspired gang, Shrubbn!! now give us an overall oeuvre of darkest imagery and heavy sounds bathed in ominous crashing waves.
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12"
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STRIKE 130EP
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Marco Haas (T.Raumschmiere) and Ulli Bomans (Schieres) aka Shrubbn!! turns out an exceptionally engrossing aural novel with Echos, a sonic adventure saturated in bass, cheeps and whispers, in chords, gleams and wisps, covering a darker sound. Shrubbn!! also up the ante with an extended outtake. Enjoy a cool 13 minutes of LX Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann ffwd-ing through Shrubbn!!'s entire album, twisting it into a cracker of an Orb remix. Artwork by Transforma.
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12"
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MUSICK 021EP
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Presenting Rumpelritter -- an epic techno 12" by Schieres and T.Raumschmiere aka Shrubbn!! "Basstoelpel" presents a straight 4-to-the-floor beat with a great hook melody line, "Thema 2.0" features rough rave and "Ebenholz" is made of pure sound progression and no plug-ins. Techno punk vibes merge with crystal clear techno beats.
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12"
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MUSICK 019EP
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Shrubbn!! was founded by Marco Haas aka T.Raumschmiere and Ulli Bomans aka Schieres in 1995, and after myriad other projects, they're back! The aim of Shrubbn!! was to make dirty, filthy but swinging noize improvisations while tripping, but both tracks on this record are expertly whittled, sprawling statements. Instead of delicate reverb and carefully balanced minimal sound packets, Shrubbn!! give us music of one mind -- rough exterior, tough core.
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