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12"
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TOKEN 077EP
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Sigha's lauded Metabolism album (TOKEN 070CD/LP, 2017) is further commended with a remix EP. Wata Igarashi's demonstrates different areas of focus with two new versions of "Black Massing". The "Daylight Breaks" remix opens up the high-end, expressing the original's delicate harmonics. The "Dusk Falls" remix instead hones in on the deep and anticipatory nature of its foundation. Marco Shuttle's foreboding "Morning Star" remix feels skillfully subtractive, magnifying elements by adding space and drawing focus to its melodic asides. Function plays with the contemplative nature of "Down" in his version, adding dynamic percussion and energy while retaining its expression and depth.
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2LP+CD
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TOKEN 070LP
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Token present Metabolism, the sophomore album from Sigha. The album marks James Shaw's third release on the Token label, following his singles Our Father/A Better Way Of Living (TOKEN 056EP, 2015) and Christ Figures/New Puritan (TOKEN 063EP, 2016). Metabolism represents an arrival: the artist offers his definitive statement on a production aesthetic that has been in development over the last few years. Shaw's work as Sigha has always placed the listener at a centrifugal point that invites a clandestine hypnosis rather than an abject hysteria. Cavernous low ends fixed firmly and effectively in a mono space, tether the music to the body, while exquisitely executed white noise patterns and crystalline pads warp and hiss around the stereo environment. This keen ear for distinction within the frequency spectrum acts as the central theme on the album. Metabolism encompasses a power dynamism that departs from the explicitly greyscale finish found on his more conceptual work as Sigha and as A Vision Of Love for Guy Brewer's Avian label. Though elements of Metabolism maintain a driven, corrosive quality, each searing sequence or mordant drum machine hit occupies its own space. On high-energy dancefloor moments and abstract tracks alike, Shaw's approach to distortion is one that sets out with an objective to separate components rather than to bind them. This creates a matrix of aural stimuli that remain heady and inherently propulsive, but are realized in a fashion more akin to high-fidelity sound design than processes traditionally associated with the techno genre. The record possesses a powerful musicality beyond this acute attention to form and structure. In the past, Shaw's productions have often married high-energy drum work with subtly shifting minor keys spread around the sonic periphery. On Metabolism, emotive leads sit squarely and comfortably in the foreground, and build towards rapturous crescendos that are crisp and omnipresent throughout the mix. These careful layers generate the extraordinary tension that has since become a hallmark of the British artist's work. Metabolism is a techno album, but its frame of reference is generous, drawing on the finest facets of the artist's own varied discography and the wider electronic music landscape. Cohesive and modern, Shaw's latest work eschews a handful of riffs on a single idea in favor of a multi-faceted, fully-realized expression of what the genre can be. 180 gram vinyl; Includes CD.
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CD
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TOKEN 070CD
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English producer James Shaw aka Sigha presents his sophomore album, Metabolism, marking his third release on the Token label following his singles Our Father/A Better Way Of Living (TOKEN 056EP, 2015) and Christ Figures/New Puritan (TOKEN 063EP, 2016). Metabolism represents an arrival, as the artist offers his definitive statement on a production aesthetic that has been in development throughout the 2010s. Shaw's work as Sigha has always placed the listener at a centrifugal point that invites a clandestine hypnosis rather than an abject hysteria. Cavernous low ends fixed firmly and effectively in a mono space tether the music to the body, while exquisitely executed white noise patterns and crystalline pads warp and hiss around the stereo environment. This keen ear for distinction within the frequency spectrum acts as the central theme on the album. Metabolism encompasses a power dynamism that departs from the explicitly grayscale finish found on Shaw's more conceptual work as Sigha and as A Vision Of Love for Guy Brewer's Avian label. Though elements of Metabolism maintain a driven, corrosive quality, each searing sequence and mordant drum machine hit occupies its own space. On high-energy dancefloor moments and abstract tracks alike, Shaw's approach to distortion is one that sets out to separate components rather than to bind them. This creates a matrix of aural stimuli that remain heady and inherently propulsive, but are realized in a fashion more akin to high-fidelity sound design than processes traditionally associated with the techno genre. The album also possesses a powerful musicality beyond this acute attention to form and structure. In the past, Shaw's productions have often married high-energy drum work with subtly shifting minor keys spread around the sonic periphery. On Metabolism, emotive leads sit squarely and comfortably in the foreground, and build toward rapturous crescendos that are crisp and omnipresent throughout the mix. These careful layers generate the extraordinary tension that has become a hallmark of the artist's work. Metabolism is a techno album, but its frame of reference is generous, drawing on the finest facets of the artist's own varied discography and the wider electronic music landscape. Cohesive and modern, Shaw's second album eschews a handful of riffs on a single idea in favor of a multi-faceted, fully realized expression of what the genre can be.
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12"
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TOKEN 063EP
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Sigha is back with a booming, atmospheric achievement. The resounding intensity of "Christ Figures" is layered with emotive and staccato melodic elements. At times distant, and then rising to the forefront of the soundscape; in their more muted moments these elements only hint at the form of a melody, their restraint heightening the track's sense of melancholic romanticism. "New Puritan" comes from Living With Ghosts (HF 009CD/LP, 2012). Offering a similar hypnotism, there's an untiring interaction between mid-range and bass that demands transfixion from the offset and retains it until the end.
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12"
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TOKEN 056EP
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Belgian label Token, an ironclad operation continuously manufacturing unyielding techno, has, deep within its impenetrable shell, always had a soft spot for British techno. The label seeks out some fresh UK blood by inviting James Shaw aka Sigha to debut on the label. Following releases on Scuba's Hotflush, Shifted's Avian, James Ruskin's Blueprint, and Shaw's own Our Circula Sound, Sigha steps up to deliver Token a linear 12" full of cosmic flavor and warehouse attitudes that judiciously falls between the sonic aesthetics of Inigo Kennedy's twinkling melancholia and the interlocking kick drums and basslines of Ø [Phase].
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2LP
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HF 009LP
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Gatefold double LP version with 9 out of 12 tracks from the CD. London DJ and producer James Shaw aka Sigha confidently returns to the label with his heavily-anticipated debut LP, Living With Ghosts. For this offering, he presents 12 impressive techno and ambient productions and fuses his love of classic UK techno with the contemporary sound that currently pulses through Berlin's Berghain. Since his 2009 debut on the label, Sigha has organically shifted further and further into the straight 4/4 realm of techno, embracing the subterranean, darker soundscapes of his new production home base, Berlin. However, hiding under all that bass, one can still hear the whisper of many long-forgotten shoegaze numbers: My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, and Slowdive, some of Sigha's heaviest influences, vibrate throughout. Years of playing guitar in London bands defined Sigha's musical start and gave him an ear for the emotive. He was able to merge both worlds after quite literally stumbling across techno by chance, igniting his love of electronic music. Ever since, he's expertly navigated the halls of UK garage and dub, releasing on Hotflush, Blueprint, and his own fledgling imprint, Our Circular Sound.
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CD
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HF 009CD
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London DJ and producer James Shaw aka Sigha confidently returns to the label with his heavily-anticipated debut LP, Living With Ghosts. For this offering, he presents 12 impressive techno and ambient productions and fuses his love of classic UK techno with the contemporary sound that currently pulses through Berlin's Berghain. Since his 2009 debut on the label, Sigha has organically shifted further and further into the straight 4/4 realm of techno, embracing the subterranean, darker soundscapes of his new production home base, Berlin. However, hiding under all that bass, one can still hear the whisper of many long-forgotten shoegaze numbers: My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, and Slowdive, some of Sigha's heaviest influences, vibrate throughout. Years of playing guitar in London bands defined Sigha's musical start and gave him an ear for the emotive. He was able to merge both worlds after quite literally stumbling across techno by chance, igniting his love of electronic music. Ever since, he's expertly navigated the halls of UK garage and dub, releasing on Hotflush, Blueprint, and his own fledgling imprint, Our Circular Sound.
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12"
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HFT 007EP
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"Hotflush Two presents the second release from the new London-based producer Sigha. Following up from his first EP on Hotflush earlier this year (HFT004 - January), 'Remembrance' and 'On The Strip' delve deeper into Sigha's lush, minimal, bass-infused soundscapes. His influences come from minimal house, dubstep and dub techno. He runs a night called Medium, at Plastic People in East London, and can also be found working behind the counter at the legendary BM-Soho record shop."
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