Max.ernst was founded in 1998 as a follower of the labels Max., Ernst and W.V.B. on which the Soul Center stuff was released. Ernst finished up after the 12" vinyl releases reached the last letter of the alphabet and after producing a CD. Max ended up as Max.ernst with catalog number 3.
The Marcus Schmickler release on Max. opened up the possibility for a wider range of music and musicians on the label, such as release by Vladislav Delay/ Luomo, John Harding, Schmickler, TBA/Tusia Beridze, Luciano, Brinkmann, and many others.
The label is open to all kinds of music, even if most of the music released is related somehow to techno, so called experimental or house. Max.ernst is an open platform for all kinds and all layers in the musical earth's strata. Max.ernst means maximal serious.
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viewing 1 To 21 of 21 items
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CD
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MAXE 016CD
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Germany's legendary label-owner, remixer and prolific experimentalist Thomas Brinkmann presents the follow-up to Klick Revolution. Please note: there is NO TECHNO on this album. The source of inspiration is a strange mix between Suicide, Trent Reznor, Joy Division, old Tuxedomoon, and Another Day On Earth-era Brian Eno. Ten tracks start up with piano and the broken arrangement between distorted guitars and bass -- no drums, no beats, just lyrics from Tuxedomoon's Winston Tong. "Spiral" is also without drums and is an adaptation of artist Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" earthwork in Utah's Great Salt Lake, elucidating the endings and beginnings between two people in love. "Birth & Death" twists out into heavier territory with drums and plenty of distorted guitars and "Meadow" is enhanced with lyrics by the Russian poet and essayist, Joseph Brodsky. "Souls" is a funky little number with lyrics by poet Marina Tsvetaeva and "2 Suns" is a heavy 100bpm stomper with Japanese lyrics, yet is totally unusable on 128bpm dancefloors. "Uselessness" is a dark, ambient, spoken-word track also based on the powerful metaphors of Robert Smithson. "It's Just" softly rocks right into the tune of "When Horses Die..." -- a Velimir Chlebnikov poem mixed with Brodsky and a hint of the Mamas & The Papas. The album finishes as it began, but without words and nothing left to say. Just piano, cello and a distorted guitar.
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12"
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MAXE 022EP
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This is the first release for newcomer Nate Fisher on Max Ernst, written and produced by T.B. (not necessarily Thomas Brinkmann!). Fisher works together with musicians like Alex Under and Brinkmann to create warm, minimal-tech dance that doesn't compromise. The A-side is a humorous tribute to Japan and it makes people dance like crazy. The B-side has some dark 'n' wacky techno. A MUST for the dancefloor.
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2CD
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MAXE 014CD
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TBA is Tbilisi, Georgia-based Goslab member Natalie Beridze, and this is her third full-length release on the Max Ernst label. Size and Tears is an ambitious double CD that runs for over 2 hours, describing an entire arc of a whole universe. This is a journey through the looking glass -- a private trip where raves meet molecular subordination and conditional solutions. It rather stands on the side of Proust, who once said, "...the earth, draped in its verdant cloak, makes as little impression upon me as a ghost. It is living and ceasing to live which are imaginary solutions." Sometimes one gets sick of the cultivated level of mediocracy of the modern product, from the peace it brings, from its boring cosmopolitan suitability, and fulfilling of expectations. Opposed to it, Size and Tears is maybe too wrong and too dreamy, but there is no other way to make it comprehensive. It's like landing in Rio in extremely stormy conditions, without knowing if you will land safely or not. This project is just another moment of intimacy from which one blushes, an easy rider of the vulgarly divine utopia. Produced in collaboration with Thomas Brinkmann.
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CD
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MAXE 015CD
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Natalie Beridze, also known as Tusia Beridze or TBA, is a female music producer from Tbilisi, Georgia. She is also known as a member of Goslab -- a Georgian art laboratory, where she creates video works. The marriage of visual art and music eventually proved to be a strong influence on her releases on Maxernst, starting with her family and ending with friends and people she has worked with, such as Nika Machaidze aka Nikakoi, Erast and Gogi Dzodzuashvili, who have used Tusia's vocals and lyrics in most of their songs. Beridze embraces an eclectic mix of influences, including The Smiths, Lou Reed, Weather Report, David Bowie, Cocteau Twins, Björk, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Jeff Mills, Autechre, Kraftwerk, Georgian folk music and much more, which came out transformed from the rough speakers of Soviet production in the tiny studio space of Goslab. The Other is released at the same time as Size and Tears as a mature counterpoint away from the former's childhood references. "Break," which was originally written for Ryuichi Sakamoto's Chain Music, made Mr. Sakamoto cry. "Hero" is quite brutal and dark, but then it all turns around again with the tenderness of "Father." Guest vocals also appear on the track "Beam Plaster" by Marcus Schmickler. The Other shows Tusia at her strongest and most committed. These tracks are love letters, not just summer kisses.
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CD
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MAXE 011CD
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Germany's legendary label-owner, remixer and prolific experimentalist Thomas Brinkmann offers a tribute to the pinball machine, on Klick Revolution. These tracks deal with the concept of the locked box with the inclined plane, as the player ponders his "questionary about luck, the slide of the things into the logic of decline," as Brinkmann states. This is a new game with turntables -- not unlike the 2001 conceptual Klick release, but this time the player is trying to turn the fixed medium of the locked box into a landscape where the klicks are sounds from the past, confronting and reacting against bumpers, ramps and logs. These implements become symbols of the obstacle of ideas in music -- the sound of Sisyphus playing pinball with a rolling stone, in the ultimate expression of the tragedy of fun. These klick revolutions are based on live sets performed during the last two years, and the variations within the live context are apparent: each track builds on a theme, with different sideways escape routes using various locked-groove records as tools (the specific records Brinkmann used for these sets can be found in the 18-page booklet in poster-format accompanying this release). A pinball machine is a locked box filled with structured, confronted noises and endless thematic possibility: start the game of Klick Revolution now.
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CD
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MAXE 012CD
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Tbilisi-based Goslab initiate Gogi Dzozuashvili (Gogi.Ge.org), together with more Goslab members make up Post Industrial Boys, and this is their second album for Thomas Brinkmann's max.Ernst. It took over two years to collect all the snapshots and blueprints that finally assembled the Post Industrial Boys experience. This project is infused with deep drama, which sometimes sounds on the verge of fatalism and decadence, with Gogi channeling and directing the post-trauma with six different vocalists and other lyricists spread out over twenty tracks. The beginning of the Post Industrial Boys project began with the track "Benzilina" -- from the first solo Gogi project, recorded in the beginning of the '90s, somewhere in a Tbilisi squatted studio. This project was also probably the very beginning of the mutual playground and collaboration which later formed into the group Goslab. Post Industrial Trauma is a reflection of Gogi's collaborative spirit, embodying a collection of many different stories and dramas with one story blending into the next, creating a nice fusion. Amusing, easy-listening melodies and lyrics blend with a palpable modest sadness, creating a post traumatic carpet. This record is big on drama, like a movie based on a true story. Features songs from the likes of Thomas Brinkmann, Lou Reed (cover of "Walk On the Wild Side") and Kurt Vonnegut. Sophisticated and smoked out electronic crossover pop that will speak to fans of Mum, Gentle People, Saint Etienne, Farben, Stereolab. etc.
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CD
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MAXE 010CD
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TBA Empty is Tbilisi, Georgia-based Goslab member Natalie Beridze, and this is her fourth full-length release on the Max Ernst label. Without a doubt, this new TBA Empty album is about the bass drum and absolute dance. This full-length release follows the Stupid Rotation 12"s, produced in collaboration with Thomas Brinkmann. This CD version includes all tracks previously available on the 12"s, plus tracks never-before released. Starting up with smooth 125 bpm and the voice of Winston Tong on "Tour" from his The Next Best Thing To Death (Is Resurrection), the next three tracks follow this theme up until "33 Pharell," the most "pop" track on the disc. Stupid Rotation then becomes more and more psychedelic due to Beridze's echoing voice. "Brain Is Gone" is THE representation of club culture at its best. "Stupid Rotation" celebrates rococo breaks and repetition for repetition's sake. The last track "Rocks" circles back to the beginning. Stupid Rotation is a delirious ride.
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12"
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MAX.I 002EP
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Max.i. is Brinkmann's new label for special releases. These Suicide remixes are based on two Suicide tracks from the early '80s album Diamonds, Furcoat, Champagne. Brinkmann accepted the Suicide remix challenge, and the result is a straight, rockin 2-track 12" with an additional loop. The project was fully supported by Suicide, Mute and Blast First, who already used one of the tracks on a limited CD edition.
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12"
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MAXE 020EP
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Back in 2005 TBA aka Natalie Beridze played a couple of straight bassdrum gigs with Thomas Brinkmann. Around 20 tracks were made from these live sets, and the first four you'll find now on the Max.e.20 12". Stupid Rotation 1 houses classic 4-tracker formats with straight, kicking beats. Techno is back on Max.e.
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12"
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MAXE 021EP
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This is the second release in the Stupid Rotations series by TBA Empty, aka Natalie Beridze. Four tracks for the dancefloor. Dry beats out of gravity into suspense. Girls go techno!
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12"
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MAX.I 001EP
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Yet another Brinkmann-related concept cover EP devoted to the Michael Jackson chart breakers "Rock With Me" and "I Can't Help It." Nikakoi wrote the new string arrangements, while Brinkmann/Schmickler are responsible for the rest. The A-side R'n'B version of "Rock With Me" is a stomper followed by an extra sweet house version of the same track. "I Can't Help It" is a straight house version followed by a very soft broken beat version. The last tracks on both sides are the pure string arrangements. The sleeve is not about porno, it's about gene technology.
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CD
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MAXE 009CD
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Germany's legendary label-owner, remixer and experimentalist Thomas Brinkmann returns with his lucky number 13 -- another full-length release of unmatchable, patented isolationist dub-inspired techno. Lucky Hands is the culmination of action, will, coincidence and two lucky hands. With its easily charming appeal and intellectually-accessible funkiness, this release is both frivolous and heavy, and one of the best semi-pop productions of the nearest past. "Maschine" is a very diverse clash of light and murk that summons both Kraftwerk and Rammstein, sliding from straight dance to melodic vocal dub, then marching into the dark German woods. But sometimes even Mr. Morrissey can be heavier, as in "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get," the Smiths tune here augmented and darkened by lovely vocals from Tusia Beridze (aka TBA). Even "Lucky Hands" stumbles upon Talking Heads skronky angularity better than the band itself. The album finishes with a stunning contribution from Marco Palmieri, who combined some of the drums taken from "isch/ROW" with the optimistic and timeless sounds from '20s swing and gypsy jazz musician Django Reinhard. Truly, it is not only luck, but experience and talent that make things happen for Mr. Brinkmann.
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CD
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MAXE 008CD
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"TBA aka Tusia Beridze 25 year old female music producer from Tbilisi / Georgia (also known as a member of Goslab, a Georgian art laboratory, where she contributed with her video works) returns with her second album on max.Ernst. Not until two years before she started producing music on her own has she had a straight connection to it, because her academic education in political and media sciences at American Institutes went in radically different direction from art and music. But it constantly appeared to be a strong challenging surrounding around her, starting from her family, ending with friends and people she worked with, such as Nika Machaidze aka Nikakoi, (wmf rec.) Erast ( Laboratory instinct) and Gogi Dzodzuashvili (aka Post Industrial Boys), who used Tusias' vocals and lyrics in most of their songs. Tusia grew up within a space, which is something like an erratic mixture of controversial and at the same time logical record, which is a mixed Georgian, Russian and European production. It initiated in childhood under the tunes of The Smiths, Lou Reed, Weather Report, David Bowie, Cocteau Twins, Bjork, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Jeff Mills, Autechre, Kraftwerk, Georgian folk music and much more, which came out transformed from the rough speakers of Soviet production in the tiny studio space of Goslab, which appeared to be a shelter and a medium for translating brutal external reality into the means to survive within it. This was the soundtrack of the political and social transformations in Georgia. From Georgian monarchs to Russian ones, from the collapse of Soviet colonial blockade to the undermined democracy, independence in poverty and finally to 'satin revolution' of the transmitting forcelines."
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CD
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MAXE 007CD
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"Post Industrial Boys is the debut album by Gogi Ge.Org aka George Dzodzuashvili. Seven different voices are found on Post Industrial Boys. All share an affinity to Goslab, a group of artists from Tbilisi, Georgia (including TBA/Natalie Beridze, Nikakoi, Gio + Maya Sumbadze...). Goslab is a phantom, which manifests itself as a culture through the performances of individual members and their various projects. In this sense, Goslab is somewhat like Georgia. Georgia is a post-communist phantom -- a pipeline in Off-Europe. A projection screen. There is a 5-hour time difference between London and Tbilisi. Tbilisi starts singing while America and Western Europe are still asleep. Post-industrial: The fifth Kondratieff wave will see the transition from hardware to software. Marx is on the finish line, somewhere between the greater and smaller Caucasus. Oil is entropy, ashes. 'Reproduction of what cannot be transformed' (Paul Valéry). Survival in global capitalism. Post-industrial joys. Streams. Sounds."
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MAXE 005CD
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"24 year old female music producer from Tbilisi / Georgia, also known as a member of Goslab, a Georgian art laboratory. Her academic education in political and media sciences at American Institutes went in radically different direction from art and music. but it constantly appeared to be a strong challenge surrounding around her, starting from her family, ending with friends and people she worked with, such as Nikakoi (WFM Rec.) Erast (Laboratory instinct) and Gogi Dzodzuashvili, who used Tusias' vocals and lyrics in most of their songs. Tusia grew up within a space, which is something like an erratic mixture of controversial and at the same time logical records, which leads to a mixed Georgian, Russian and European production. It initiated in childhood under the tunes of The Smiths, Lou Reed, Weather Report, David Bowie, Cocteau Twins, Bjork, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Jeff Mills, Autechre, Kraftwerk, Georgian folk music and much more, which came out transformed from the rough speakers of Soviet production in the tiny studio space of Goslab, which appeared to be a shelter and a medium for translating brutal external reality into the means to survive within it. This was the soundtrack of the political and social transformations in Georgia. From Georgian monarchs to Russian ones, from the collapse of Soviet colonial blockade to the undermined democracy, independence in poverty and finally to 'satin revolution' of the transmitting forcelines. The 21 tracks from the TBA album are precise and straight sketches of the background between such different cultural influences, from the edge, between Asia, Russia and the so called western world. Music from the geographical top (Kaukasus) and very end of Europe in the south east, where despite the whole external chaos, it rounds up with one clear sentence: Georgia is like a spiritual Tokyo."
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12"
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MAXF 014EP
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"Brinkmann has been scouting these fresh talents from Lisboa and giving both artists the Max Ernst stamp of approval. Freaky minimal electro-techno vibes, stunning, sophisticated soundscapes and subtle shifting melodicism all add up to a highly recommended release."
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12"
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MAXF 011EP
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"Brinkmann violates Kraftwerk's Numbers in a totally smashing way."
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CD
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MAXE 002CD
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The 2nd CD release on Thomas Brinkmann's MaxErnst label, from the Swiss producer Luciano (previous 12" releases on Mental Grooves, Bruchstucke, Klang Elektronik). Beautiful Q-tip cover artwork. "This outstandingly good Weetamix session from Mental Groove's Luciano has hit us like a bolt out the blue on this fine Summer afternoon. For those of you in need of enlightenment, Mental Groove is Switzerland's answer to Berlin's Bpitch Control -- a house of discoid madness and futuristic electronic exploration. This, however, offers us something a little different from the impossibly cool Luciano. 9 tracks mixed in from start to finish, the aroma here is one of pure innovation, sounds culled from an archive of musical inspiration that makes constant audio reference to Atom Heart, Akufen, Autechre and Brinkmann himself, tracks intricately pieced together from an array of found sounds, layer upon layer of tweaked samples and loops that come together in one giant impressive stretch of beats and cuts. As live sets go, it really doesn't get much better than this."
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12"
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MAXF 009EP
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"Smart vist from Sweden at Brinkmann's. Tight minimaltechno as you can expect on this label."
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CD
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WVB 004CD
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Year 2000 release. The second Soul Center album from Thomas Brinkmann dives into the minutae of sampled groove like nothing previously known to man. Utilizing source music via the likes of "Anne", "S. Tax", "H. Hancock", "E. Floyd", "St. Singers", "R. Thomas", "C. Thomas", "G. Clinton", "B. Kays", "U. Finger", "C. Morgenstern", & "R. Powder", this album mainlines the concept of musical euphoria and achieves instant classic status. Official hype: "Can I ask you one question, ain't I clean? What you're doin? 29 years later the new bastard: Soul Center based on Wattstax... Are you ready for this, Artur? A psycho set with respect. Boy...big stuff... who in the funk do you think you are? You'll never be a morning star. Cause there are no stars in the sky, they're all on the ground. 'You may call it soul with hot sauce. We call it the African truthjuice...the sperm of the sun." (Jim Ingram). Figure it out!"
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WVB 001CD
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First of three Thomas Brinkmann releases under the aegis of "Soul Center" (followed by the 2nd, untitled, album [WVB 004] and III, released by Novamute). Originally issued in 1999. "Slowly reveals itself as a series of 'variationen' on themes from classic (i.e. Stax/Curtom era) soul CHARTERS, barely recontextualized and completely discernable to any student of the genre (hence previous/intended paranoia). If it's any consolation, Brinkmann is thanked [alongside J(ürgen) Paape, G(eorge) Clinton, Theo Parrish, (the) U(ndisputed) Truth, D(an) Bell, F(our) Tops, R.R.R., etc]... Spherical." -- Hrvatski.
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