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viewing 1 To 18 of 18 items
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12"
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ORAC 026EP
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Dapayk makes devastating techno for labels including Orac, Trapez, Karloff, and his own Mo's Ferry. The title track of this EP is an 11-minute long epic of dubbed-out crackles and rumbles that give way to a martial beat, liquid synths and organic percussion. "Saaa" continues the dark cabaret vibe and aims its weaponry straight at more adventurous dancefloors. "Way" features a sleepy, swirling collage and the echoing voice of a lonely old cowboy. Evocative, danceable stuff.
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12"
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ORAC 027EP
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Sutekh aka Seth Horvitz presents Elephant & Obelisk, exploring a range of styles from bouncy techno to high-tech broken beats, giving more than a passing nod to classic Chicago sounds along the way. "Unstern" starts things with an appealing bumpity groove and a tasty free-electronic interlude. The B-side sports "Zuur," a modern and warped take on "Wild Pitch," and ends with the classy and menacing broken beats of "Ubu Rex."
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12"
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ORAC 025EP
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Philippe Quenum's debut release on the Orac label reaches out with two radical tracks of expansive, sinuous techno. "Acalanto" starts with an infectious samba groove punctuated by tight little vocal shouts and "Glasgow" gets deep, with a dream-like chant and a thick, synthetic pulse. This release is dancefloor stuff.
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12"
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ORAC 023EP
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This is the long-awaited sequel to Unclassified Computer Funk, the record that kicked off Orac's Black+White series. On Unclassified Computer Funk 2, Paradroid and [a]pendics.shuffle trade samples remix style, so the result sounds more unified, more collaborative than last time. It's animated by the same prankster spirit but more expansive, with more dark and cinematic spaces bursting out from cracks in the manic beats. From nostalgia to paranoia to dark humor, this remains totally danceable. Quite a feat.
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12"
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ORAC 024EP
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Back On That Road is Jon McMillion's second 12" on Orac. The title track has solid beats that build patiently, somewhere in between Detroit and the Latin techno of Villalobos, Luciano and friends. "Land's End" features muted synth colors that wash over and under, bearing a powerful melancholy. Quenum remixes the title track, raising the energy, but keeping all of its charm. The vocal turns into a chant, as organic synth plunks and buzzes weave into and build on each other until, OMG, you're raving.
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12"
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ORAC 022EP
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Strategy takes off into deep Detroit-influenced house territory on "Fields of May," and the result is a foggy, hypnotic, heavy track. The DSP trickery is still in evidence, but takes a backseat here to a more organic sound. A serious late-night burner which fans of Moodymann or The Mole ought to dig. Secondo's remix ups the energy level a bit, taking it into techno-house territory. The last track is a spiky and gorgeous experiment in ambient techno/dub. Headphones? Check. Spliff? Check.
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CD
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ORAC 020CD
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This is Portland, Oregon based Solenoid's fourth full-length release. Solenoid is a well-established IDM producer who knows that you don't need new tools to tell new stories. Bold, speculative futures can be written with a pencil, or played on the piano. Solenoid's new album, Supernature, is made with a familiar palette of analog sounds in which the venerable 303 features prominently. But Solenoid finds new territory with these classic sounds, using his mastery of synthesis as a base camp from which to explore new ideas in writing and arrangement. Well-known in the IDM world from his full-length releases on Outward Music, Emanate and Hiao Hiao Hiao, Solenoid steps decisively into dance music with this release, and the results are like rare acid tracks from a parallel universe. There is solid dancefloor stuff here, as well as plenty of melodic, musical glimmers: take "Drack Soul," which sounds like the missing link between Alexander Robotnick and Kompakt-style neo-trance. Or "July's War Butterflies," with its crystalline synths and raw electro-techno beats which hold their own next to our favorite Drexciya tracks. Supernature is, on top of all this, a concept album. Each track is an exploration of an idea from Solenoid's sketchbooks in which he paints and writes about nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and future battles between Free Cascadians and corporate kings. The darker side of these speculations is evident in the interstitial "free electronics" tracks full of primordial synth oozings and piercing, ripping analog sounds. Supernature is a diverse, engaging album, with solid club tracks and free-electronic freakouts aplenty.
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LP
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ORAC 020LP
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12"
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ORAC 019EP
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"After a long wait, the second record on Orac's 'Black and White' series is finally available. Called Inner Floor, it's the debut EP from Seattle's own Jon McMillion. Like unclassified computer funk before it, Inner Floor is an experiment for the dancefloor, adventurous and abstract. Without relying on obvious melodic hooks or retro rhythms, McMillion sifts beats out of a very personal collection of sonic material, and the result is ear-bendingly danceable. Sonically, Inner Floor owes something to the 'clicks and cuts' school but its beats are definitely aware of new minimal techno. McMillion coaxes confident dancefloor beats out of unlikely scraps of material, from the pervasive microfunk samples to the interdimensional choral slush of the title track and the wry guitar abuse of 'Make It Worms.' There are melodies here, but mostly hidden ones, darting in between parallel strands of distinct sounds."
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12"
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ORAC 018EP
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"Cheeky stuff from Dapayk of Mo's Ferry fame on this, his first guest appearance on Orac. Twisted, dark and funny techhouse caught somewhere between the spaciness of a Captain Comatose and M. Mayer in his pumping techno-disco mode. Caro turns down the speed a bit and turns up the creepiness in his solid disco version with real Casino sounds? But wait, there's more! The B-side track, 'Sutterluety,' is slithering techno weirdness which we have to say makes this release thoroughly Oracian in outlook."
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CD
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ORAC 017CD
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"Look to the skies: [a]pendics.shuffle's Helicopter Hearts are about to land on a dancefloor near you. Ha ha ha! Kenneth James Gibson, as he refers to himself, has prepared a fantastic 8 tracker and submitted it to Orac HQ for immediate release. Vigorous dance anthems are dominating the playlist as [a]pendics.shuffle joins his Orac comrades in exploring the power of 4 on the floor. This album is about songs that you can dance to. Songs with words and songs without words, and songs in between. After side A sets the tone with two motivating yet mysterious numbers, the deep blue night of echo park falls with 'Baneful Lather' on side B, a dark stomper for the dark discos of L.A. Next comes 'Saw Saw Soup' which has already found its way up the charts; this reworked version features a happier Michael J. And a slightly mellower [a]pendics.shuffle. The noddy 'Dirty Hood' is another diabolical number, straight-up vocal funk strengthened by thoroughly modern-sounding stabs and slowly building percolating drum patterns. The rest of sides C and D find our Mr. Gibson getting deep into the instrumentals, juggling horns, radio receivers and his signature [a].funkadelics, finding farben-like jazz record loops, indulging in high drama which for all its sonic explorations never fails to return to the dance floor."
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12"
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ORAC 016EP
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"Clever, treacherous, propulsive dance music by Mossa. Raunchy, burning low-end throbs the sense out of you while a crucial uplift is provided by brightly colored flashes of classic techno rhythm. Not so much a light at the end of the tunnel as a reminder that the light is the tunnel, so let's have a tunnel party. A purposeful ambiguity between different rhythms ties the whole package into something much more than a gridwise construction, a viscous flow of beats in which you set your own 'Swing' knob and get to be a small part of a big wave. The Ben Nevile remix is probably the most banging thing to come out on Orac since DJ Slip's remix of 'Strategy.' The sound of killer bees cutting up the original and hiding the parts in crumbling sweet densely packed hexagons. Organic, simple, and effective."
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12"
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ORAC 012EP
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"Ken Gibson aka [A]pendics.shuffle is venturing more into tracky territory on this release, and the results are quite amazing. Saw Saw Soup embraces contradictory moods. The beat is straightforward and makes only the tiniest diversions into frickel land. A percolating major-key bassline remains upbeat throughout. But breathing noises and mysterious, hooky (!) vocals place a standoffish layer over this solid foundation. What a thing to dance to, only later realizing that you just heard a new kind of pop song. Robag Wruhme turns in a quite special remix which takes its time getting going, leading us into several side doors behind which vocal cutups and strange reverb monsters lurk. Then at the halfway point a solo bass throb, like listening to the party from the back alley, creates a sudden sense of urgency, and all the characters we have met so far join forces to take us to the center of things. Minimal, spooky and tuff, Ken rounds out the b-side with 'Creamer.' Dirty pneumatic funk, the hissing of air pistons and solid shop floor beats, ties together a swarm of tiny noises and the unexpected appearance of some dubwise chords. And on top, a helpful corporate spokesman tells you about the new career choices that will be opened up by these fabulous machines."
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2LP
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ORAC 014LP
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CD
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ORAC 014CD
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"Caro is back. Back from where, we don't know. When he left, all he said was '...so I'm packin' my bags for the misty mountains.' Five months later he showed up with no bags, a beautiful horse and a new full-length. The Return of Caro is an entirely listenable album which provides a bounty of dancefloor-friendly tracks. Caro accomplishes this balancing act by swimming between genres from Detroit-influenced house to jacking techno, with the signature style that led De:bug, German bible of all things electronic, to call him 'surely one of the most self-willed house producers.' The tracks 'Can't Tell Why' and 'My Little Pony' are the one-two punch of this album-each has a memorable vocal and raw, movement-friendly beats that harken back to the days of trax and dance mania. These jacking tracks propose an alternate universe where it's a cold world and baby wants to ride stormed the pop charts. 'Can't Tell Why' is the sincere, emotional one of the two, telling a brief story about love and loss that we can all relate to. 'My Little Pony' is a tasty, guilty pleasure: unforgettable dry dancefloor humor. Then there are 'Ah, ah, ah' and 'Heavy Wheel': two widescreen, cinematic house tracks. 'Ah, ah, ah' is the perfect opener for the album, full of optimistic sci-fi sounds, good for a sunny day. 'Heavy Wheel' is a melancholy, jazzy, slow builder. Woven between these house and techno tracks are some less genre-bound numbers. 'Sea of Hands' is a glitched-out love song with intricate Latin beats and an oceanic guitar melody. 'We Can Build It' is melancholy techno of ambitious scope which folds in heartfelt references to influences from Drexciya to the Black Dog. Ovnito is a rare recording from 1962 of Perez Prado's orchestra jamming with a small guest who came one day from another world, bearing arp synthesizers and some delicious ham-and-cheese sandwiches. Finally, my little castle finishes up this album with hypnotic, acidic and thoroughly modern techno. Sweeping and sultry, the minimal foundation supports an atonal song from some mysterious cabaret. The acid is kept at a slow simmer as hypnotic melodies weave in and out. A track with plenty of room for the head and feet to wander, a fitting end for an album of breathtaking scope."
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12"
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ORAC 013EP
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"Orac is veering back into left field, starting a new series with this experimental split: four tracks for forward-reaching dance floors. You could call them house, and you could call them techno. Just don't call them minimal. We call them unclassified computer funk. Max Wendling aka Paradroid starts off the record. Member of the Boogizm crew, Max represents here with two tracks of his signature machine funk. The aircrash bureau is an action-packed and totally danceable gem, delivering in all departments: solid bass, acid sequences full of errors, synth stabs and tightly coded sounds at all compatible bit rates. Traversable nodes, in contrast, indulges in theatrical sampling styles. It starts out with a skeletal groove which reminds us of Doctor Rockit before settling down into a technoid bump anchored by a deep bassline. Tight drum machine patterns play ping pong over the top with wild eeps and atonal synth burbles. It's a curious logic, but we can deal with it, until the break anyway, when it sounds like Max accidentally shuts the drum machine off and after trying every button in the studio to bring it back in, somehow hits the right combination and succeeds, miraculously having kept the dance floor full. On the flip is a torrid [a]pendics.shuffle adventure. Struggling to arrest runaway percussion and control various oscillator leaks, Ken Gibson is singing through his special 'Trout Face' effect when an argument of a personal nature erupts with an unheard companion. Your rim job is the revealing name of this sweaty drum machine workout. Assembling and dissembling vocals, playing with the sequences and not letting his hand off the effects knobs, Ken manages to make it through this tricky episode in his studio. Torn feel starts out with some network interference finding its way through a drowsy beat, bubbling out in all directions. Precision funk constructed out of abstract noises creates some order in this madness, picks up the pace, then passes the baton to a malfunctioning vocal sample which eventually gives up, but not without a struggle."
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12"
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ORAC 011EP
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"With one foot in the past and one in the future, Caro keeps walking his own path to a new dance sound. This modern jack track combines a solid bounce with the hookiness of a pop song. An organ-like analog bass line with a classic bounce goes through some totally modern mutations but remains unimpeachably solid throughout. Caro intones his vocals in a bam-bam style, more upfront than his past tracks. This stuff is tripped out, urgent and sexy and will rock your party. It wouldn't be a Caro single without a Ben Nevile remix. While the original is jumping from the get, this version is a striptease, taking its time at a nice, slow tempo and building up from a stoney broken beat into a serious late-night winner. There are so many elegant tricks hand-placed in there that it's hard to imagine what a solid groove it ends up with. Bruno Pronsato turns up the funk and the sweat on the original with his remix that's very much 'on the one.' It's super solid, punctuated by these incredible little ripping sounds Bruno coaxed out of Caro's samples with some advanced digital trickery. Bruno insisted that this one be called 'Capelli's Glue Mix,' which will confuse lots of people but not you. Beckett + Taylor turn in a mix as astonishing as their work for brilliant new London label hand on the plow. More a cover than a remix, the duo do their own singing and add some very funky organ riffs. The result is insanely funky and rootsy sounding yet altogether lighthearted-you wouldn't hesitate to play it for your mum. Future funk for the whole family."
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12"
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ORAC 010EP
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"'Super Vamp' is hi-tension funk, strung tightly between its classic influences and exploratory production techniques. A classic disco vamp drawn out relentlessly in a techno mode. The result is funky as hell, and one of those great bridge tracks which can take a set from one genre to another. It's also got a great vitality which comes from strategy applying his homemade cut-up software live in the mix. Nudge's version uses the vamp as the skeleton of a pop song, a beautiful and unexpected move. The hazy, nostalgic-future mix paints a picture of a basement full of gear, lovingly tended, and two quiet but very intent vocalists. If Windy & Carl tried their hands at making house music, the result might be something like this. Solenoid makes an epic electro-disco version of the track, with abundant musicality and a great dancefloor flow."
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