Sophomore album for German house/techno artist originally released in 1998. The majority of the album is a cross between deep house and Detroit techno with the exception of the earthy breakbeat track 'What's Your Number', disco-funk 'Followed' and quasi-post-rock 'Disco Love'. Highlights include 'Cold Wait' and 'Flatlet'

‘Obsidian’ marks the third album from Benjamin Damage (his second solo long-player) and the end of an era for both himself and 50WEAPONS. As the first artist (outside of Modeselektor) to release on the label it’s apt that this album is also the last one on 50WEAPONS.
Benjamin himself states, "Obsidian is a collection of fragmented memories from all the music I’ve ever liked, distorted and restructured into a full length techno record. A purely personal project and an end of an era with 50WEAPONS.”

Nils Frahm and his childhood friends, Frederic Gmeiner and Sepp Singwald, joined by Andrea Belfi and Peter Broderick, merge post-rock, jazz, modern classical, and studio-as-instrument aesthetics in their 2nd full length under the Nonkeen banner
“nonkeen return to R&S Records with the swift follow up to their debut album ‘The Gamble’.
‘Oddments of the Gamble’ is a continuation of the unique, analogue concoctions that formed the first album – very much like a ‘part two’ in many ways. Although it inevitably draws on a similar formula to the previous LP – pensive loops and melodies, sweeping arpeggios, post-rock jams, and rolling jazz breaks – Oddments of the Gamble still stands alone as another statement from the trio despite originating from the same recording session.
Fresh listeners will encounter the holistic expressiveness of a substantial and beautifully put together album; while existing fans of nonkeen can expect another facet of the band to emerge on this record, one that is distinctively more euphoric than that of the hazier, more brooding prequel.
nonkeen’s history has always been shaped by the mysterious convergence of coincidence with the band’s steady exploration of as yet unheard sounds. After all, ever since Frederic Gmeiner, Nils Frahm and Sepp Singwald discovered, in their childhood days, a shared passion for rudimentary tape machines, they’ve refused to shy away from letting their music respond to the erratic nature of their recording process. What started as a playground radio show in a suburb of Hamburg, where Gmeiner and Frahm experimented with their cassette players and the noises of their daily environment, soon developed into a long-lasting friendship, and eventually led to the foundation of nonkeen. So those in possession of their debut album, The Gamble, will require little introduction to the band’s most loyal member, Chance.
Choosing only their favourite tracks for the debut album ‘The Gamble’ turned out to be a challenging endeavour: there were still too many for a single album. The only solution, therefore – according to the band – was to make several albums, but this didn’t make things much easier: the next question was which album to release. Refusing to let such matters get the better of them, they agreed to flip a coin: let Chance decide and the band would follow, with the winning album known as The Gamble. But the warm reception that followed its release flattered Gmeiner, Frahm and Singwald, encouraging them to make available the collection that had first lost the toss: The Oddments Of The Gamble. After all, everything – just like everyone – deserves a second chance.”

Digitally remastered pressing of their 1983 debut self-titled album. Includes the original tracklisting and features the International hit single, '99 Luftballons'. Sony.

Remember how badly we wanted to join them and be part of those seafaring adventures: Jack London’s The Sea-Wolf, classic TV shows based on his novel The Road, on Radu Toduran’s novels… back then, a couple decades ago, the titles of these shows alone were enough to trigger some strong gusts in our hearts, salty squalls perfect for imaginary downwind journeys we dreamed of with billowing sails. We wanted to cruise alongside albatrosses, seagulls, and fellow sailors. Floating high above a three-masted vessel, we watched our own adventures unfold far below, an imagined movie scene complete with a whole crew that worked the rigging, and all the rest. Cutting waves. Amidst the storm and stress of sounds hitting our eardrums far out in the ocean. Combined with the sounds of rotors, of tropics crossed, of marimbas and cabin wood pounded, of strange music spotted in the distance. And even though it was merely for an hour or two that we were rescued by that seal-hunting ship “Ghost,” as Jack London had it, plus, even worse, often found ourselves surrounded by villains: it was a great escape, for we’d successfully set sails – to new and exciting places.
Both around their own Weilheim shores and elsewhere, brothers Markus and Micha Acher have launched various musical vessels, bands and free floating constellations over the past three decades – and yet: amid all these other speedboats and unlikely sonic barges, The Notwist has always remained the mother ship. This new album documents the latest live incarnation of this very band, which also features Andi Haberl, Max Punktezahl, Karl Ivar Refseth, and Cico Beck. Recorded on December 16, 2015 on the second of three consecutive, sold-out nights at UT Connewitz in Leipzig, Germany, Superheroes, Ghostvillains & Stuff indeed feels like a first-hand live experience caught on triple vinyl. That’s why it’s the definitive album of The Notwist’s career.
Although there is one song that points to the early, “louder years” of The Notwist – “One Dark Love Poem” off the album Nook –, the rest of the night’s set sees the band perform all the major hits off Neon Golden, The Devil, You + Me, and Close To The Glass. However, these are different, organically enhanced versions, new interpretations and combinations that feel much more alive; thanks to Olaf Opal’s incredible mix, they sometimes even outshine the original studio recordings. Listening to Superheroes, Ghostvillains & Stuff feels like watching these songs evolve and change, moving from one frame to the next, much like a baroque triptych.
What starts out like ‘wimmelbook’ imagery, the music soon folds and unfolds like a Moebius strip: Sans bottom or top, sans inside or outside, the inside becomes the outside and vice versa. It’s all about sonic interconnection, about music as entanglement, music as reconciliation. The rather majestic, cinematic (indie) pop and experimental, kraut-infused jazz, the spirit of the enlightenment and baroque playfulness, the traces of modernism and minimal music, dub leanings, hip-hop lessons, and even hints of house music: here is where they all come together, reconciled in a sound that’s both melancholy and romantic. And ultimately, the spirit of these songs is set free – and the band has released itself, is free at last.
As for the album title, it’s lifted from the song “Kong,” and encapsulates Markus Acher’s motto. Throughout the track, the water theme first appears as a dangerous threat: a force that’s strong enough to wash away an entire house; and yet the fluid state keeps transforming and eventually releases that sense of threat into something rather hopeful, a new musical beginning, a melodic departure that ultimately leads to euphoria and a renewed spirit of adventure. These are the strong gusts mentioned above, it’s the spirit of discovery, the urge to set sail together. The crew’s back at it, working the instruments, the rigging, with sails a-billow, launching the next voyage of discovery, assuming the East in the West and vice versa. And thus the adventure saga continues.
-Pico Be (Das Weiße Pferd)

Limited LP edition. Strictly limited to 500 copies. Vinyl version comes in a gatefold sleeve. This is the debut release on Jan Jelinek's label Faitiche: a collection of unheard electronic experiments from an unlikely source. Ursula Bogner's was a pharmacist, wife and mother, and she was obsessed with electronic music -- an obsession that drove her to build her own studio for extensive recording and experimentation. Ursula Bogner was born in 1946 and raised in Dortmund -- she moved to Berlin at 19 to study pharmacy. She immediately went to work for pharmaceutical giant Schering, followed by marriage, children and a successful yet by no means sensational scientific career within the multinational heavyweight. At the same time, she developed a keen interest in electronic music. Throughout her early 20s, she followed the activities of Cologne-based Studio Fr Elektronische Musik, attended seminars by Studio founder Herbert Eimert, exhibited great enthusiasm for musique concrŠte and, later on, shared her children's enthusiasm for British new wave pop. Nevertheless, Ursula Bogner never involved herself in any scene, never made her music public. Besides composition, she also tried her hand at painting, printing (the booklet features reproductions of two of her linocuts) and developed a strong fascination for mysticism, esotericism, and Wilhelm Reich's "orgonomy," the psychoanalyst's bizarre late work on his discovery of "orgonenergy" or life-force. Her compositions are studies and sketches: humorous and -- in view of her biography -- almost silly, rather than mystical or scientific. Nevertheless, it is remarkably hard to grasp or classify her work as a whole. Over the course of 20 years, she dabbled in many different styles, leading to a huge wealth of work and a bewildering variety of titles, from filter modulations, tuba tweaking, bass anthems, looping experiments, synth-pulse symphonies, to rhythmic patterns trapped in echo chambers. In the late 1960s, Ursula Bogner started to record her own music on reel-to-reel tapes. With some of these titles, Jelinek only found individual tracks of pieces recorded on a four-track-recorder -- in these cases, he had to recombine the separate tracks to recreate the original piece. Invoking the original's authenticity might seem insensitive, yet there was no other way to release them in their entirety. Ultimately, only three of the tracks featured on this CD/LP are such "reworkings." All other titles were taken straight from the original reels. Covering a fairly short period of her creative career, they also convey a peculiar coherence in both form and content. A coherence that reflects her accessible, rhythmic and sometimes even "poppy" side. An exhilarating find from a truly undiscovered electronic artist.