Recent posts: Monkeytown

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Artist: Gajek
Title Of Album: Restless Shapes
Year Of Release: 2014
Label: MonkeyTown
Genre: Techno, IDM, Experimental
Quality: MP3
Bitrate: 320 kbps
Total Time: 00:33:54
Total Size: 80 mb

Tracklist:
1. Curved Engines (part 1) (3:07)
2. Curved Engines (part 2) (1:22)
3. Curved Engines (part 3) (0:29)
4. Curved Engines (part 4) (0:59)
5. Curved Engines (part 5) (0:30)
6. Curved Engines (part 6) (1:12)
7. Restless Water Shapes (part 1) (0:53)
8. Restless Water Shapes (part 2) (2:47)
9. Restless Water Shapes (part 3) (2:01)
10. Restless Water Shapes (part 4) (1:16)
11. Restless Water Shapes (part 5) (0:45)
12. Restless Water Shapes (part 6) (3:25)
13. Restless Water Shapes (part 7) (1:31)
14. Restless Water Shapes (part 8) (1:36)
15. Moving Glasses (part 1) (2:17)
16. Moving Glasses (part 2) (1:49)
17. Moving Glasses (part 3) (1:49)
18. Moving Glasses (part 4) (1:01)
19. Moving Glasses (part 5) (0:54)
20. Moving Glasses (part 6) (1:22)
21. Moving Glasses (part 7) (2:49)

Concept albums are a rare species. They seem to have a tendency to show up late on revered artists timelines. Post teenage angst and the sheer unlimited energy of the early stages of the human condition, they convey a strategy that’s often been shaped by matured ideas coming together over the years. It is seldom that these are debut records. Gajek’s compositions however have grown quietly under the radar, heard only by those in his inner circle. In a way this is not a debut – as this music has ripened over the course of many years. But whilst his visual oeuvre has been out there for a while, accompanying the music of Warp’s Clark, Gajeks own audio is only now seeing the light of the public.

After Chris Clark had passed some of Gajeks sheer endless output over to Modeselektor, quite a few listening sessions followed. Ranging from post-rocky electronica to complex and moody renderings of intricate introverted beat structures to a mutant dance music, a whole audioscape had to be discovered. There were songs and tracks and experiments there, morphed vocals and reverberated non human instruments, complex percussion patterns and sweet athmospheres, but in all these different paths and moods, a penchant for working with a leitmotif could be traced.

As an introduction to expose his particular working method, a concept mini-album was carefully crafted. Filled with 21 short tracks circling around 3 main motifs this record lays bare one of Monkeytown’s new artists main strenghts. The creation of a soundscape that explores a notion of something athmospheric hidden away under the material of the zeitgeist. Working with variations of rythmic elements it seems like the 3 parts of this album tell very short but intricately entwined stories equal to the miniature worlds contained in snow globes. They contain references to their larger musical counterparts in Gajeks other works, but shaken and stirred and sometimes snowed under. One is quickly drawn into this music, challenged to find the thread and follow it into its different outfits and scenarios.

The first complex entitled „Curved Engines“ evolves around a major scale played over two octaves with the exclusion of a few notes. Its friendly and simple melody is examined in every possible direction almost like a classical minimalist piano piece. The second one „Restless Water Shapes“ explores a repetitive rythmic pattern, which is evolving over the course of its 8 parts, sometimes reminiscent of early Autechre, but combined with a more jazz based approach. On its course, the pattern morphs from being played on actual percussions, to drony pads and sirens synthesized from vocals until it breaks into actual composed pieces on track 9, 12 and 14. Here, various of the afore-heard elements come together and form moments of extreme beauty and calmness while challenging the listener to come closer, hear more, better, finer.

Complex 3 „Moving Glasses“ starts like an overture to a digital „Zarathrustra“. Synthezised arpeggios sounding like a muted bamboo – harpsichord are interrupted by a syncopated beat swinging in an upside down gesture like an exclamation mark. Some of the elements of the former complexes appear, culminating in a more orchestrated apparel. Where the other parts explore a musical structure this one is devoted to (a) form. This form could be called „electronic dance music“, if this expression wasnt already taken for the cheap mainstream rendering of autotuned four to the floor. In a different speak one could also say „almost techno“. „Moving Glasses“ offers the most apparent references to club – music in its various forms ranging from hip hop to techno but also finding its way back to ambient and electronica.

You can consume this album without paying attention to the „concept“ part of it, no worries, it is a masterfully crafted piece of intelligent electronica that is as pleasant to listen to, as it is thought though. But you can also dig deep and let yourself be amazed by the mindgames of this young producer, who is by the way also just gaining his „Meisterschüler“ in the visual arts. His idiosyncratic mastery of music however was obtained autodidactically. And that makes the beauty of it.”

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Label/Cat#: Monkeytown Germany – MKTXTR 002
Year: 12 September, 2014
Source: WEB
Format: mp3
Quality: 320 kbps
Size: 20 MB
Genre: Electronic
Style: Electronic

Tracklist:
1. Smells Like Teen Spirit (8:59)

Modeselektor’s Monkeytown label has never shied away from releasing music that’s a little eccentric and left-of-centre. Even so, few would have expected them to release a minimal techno-inspired atmospheric deep house cover of Nirvana’s grunge classic “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. The men responsible are – somewhat surprisingly – RY X and Ame’s Frank Wiedemann, who don the Howling alias for the first time since their eponymous debut on Transmodern. Their interpretation is one of those records that will divide opinions; those who love it will claim it’s a nine-minute chunk of winding, atmospheric house with a beguiling, haunting vocal atop. Certainly, you can feel the pain and anguish in the vocal.

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Label: Monkeytown
Catalog#: 045
Release date: 2014
Source: WEB
Format: MP3
Quality: 320 kbps
Size: 224 mb
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno, Electro, IDM, Electronic

Tracklist:
CD1

01. Fennesz – TOM
02. Nosaj Thing – Dy
03. Solar Year – Way
04. The Fall – Fibre Book Troll
05. To Rococo Rot – Miles An Hour
06. Cid Rim – Pastis
07. Akkord – Gradient
08. Robot Koch – Sun
09. Howling – Signs
10. Born In Flamez – Time Hurtz

CD2

01. L-Vis 1990 – Funk 4D
02. Schlachthofbronx feat. Buraka Som Sistema – Volumen
03. Illum Sphere – Bullet
04. French Fries – Shift
05. Alex Banks – Be the One feat. Elizabeth Bernholz
06. Onra – Blast
07. Henrik Schwarz – We Are Bankrupt
08. Brandt Brauer Frick feat. Vic Mensa & Om’Mas Keith – Jungle Love
09. Omar Souleyman – Edamat (Modeselektor Edit)

The latest buzzword making the rounds among the cultural cognoscenti: curation. And while we try to steer clear of hackneyed fads, this one almost slipped the net waxing lyrical about Modeselektor’s Modeselektion Vol. 03. Dodging the tried-and-tested approach of calling a few mates, bagging some shelved tunes, slapping it all together and unleashing the result on the unsuspecting masses, this one is actually all about the art of selection. About careful consideration, motivation, choice, process – that is, a pretty elaborate labour of love that hides intense effort under free-flowing, seamless sounds that sneak up on the ears to broaden our collective horizon.

Modeselektion Vol. 03 is a prime example of this painstaking process – boasting buckets of strictly exclusive tracks, once again hand-picked by Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary. By now, their Modeselektion hall of fame not only features the cute monkey covers and tracklists of Vol. 1 (2010) and Vol. 02 (2012), but als quite a few festival posters and AAA passes that highlight the concept’s live appeal – a. o. at Melt! Festival, UK’s The Warehouse Project and Bloc festival or Geneva’s Electron festival … Whether on vinyl or on stage, any Modeselektion “boils down to whatever we think is hot”, explains Gernot Bronsert. “We suffer from constant music overload, so we use Modeselektion to channel the best of these tunes for the outside world.”

More Modeselektion insights: Any selection is only as great as the distance between its most diverse elements – the greater, the better – but only if the compilation manages to shrink this gap down to nothing in a flash, convincing us that the gloriously heterogeneous mix couldn’t be any more cohesive. Also, any selection improves exponentially with the number of surprises and discoveries.

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Label: Monkeytown Germany
Catalog#: MTR041
Release date: 14-05-2014
Source: WEB
Format: MP3
Quality: 320 kbps
Size: 50 mb
Genre: Electronic
Style: Bass

Tracklist:
1. “All You Could Do” (feat Elizabeth Bernholz)
2. “Phosphorus”
3. “All You Could Do” (Phon O remix)
4. “All You Could Do” (alternate version)

Ahead of his debut album dropping on Monkeytown, Alex Banks gives the world a sneak peek at the sound he has been conjuring up by way of this single. The title track features the haunting vocal tones of Elizabeth Bernholz, whose siren song peals out over a frenetic mash of electronic beat mangling that calls to mind earlier strains of Clark. “Phosphorus” also gets busy in the edit, as infinitesimal sonic details bounce off of each other with the swagger of 2-step and some emotive synth work. Phon O reworks “All You Could Do” with a taut, stepping techno rhythm and a hopeful synth lilt, while Banks himself offers up an alternative version that moves in a slower, more spacious manner compared to the original.

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Artist Moderat
Title Bad Kingdom (Remixes)
Genre Electronic, House, Techno
Label Monkeytown
Catalog# MKTXTR001
Released 2014
MP3 Download Source Vinyl
Play Time 18:49 min
Total Tracks. 2
Bitrate 320 kbps

1. Bad Kingdom (Dj Koze Remix) ( 8:16)
2. Bad Kingdom (Robags 4 4 Edit Mit Xomlopp Rmx Schwanz-014) (10:33)

Limited white vinyl in a clear plastic sleeve with sticker. Only available at the webshop!

After remixes by Marcel Dettmann and Head High it’s now DJ Koze who adds his artistic touch to Moderat’s “Bad Kingdom”.
B side is Robag Wruhme’s “4/4 Edit mit Xomlopp RMX Schwanz-014” which has already been featured in a shorter version on Moderat’s Tour Edition.

Both versions are 100% sing-along dancefloor material.

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Artist: Alex Banks
Title Of Album: Illuminate
Year Of Release: 23 may 2014
Label: Monkeytown / monkeytown43CD
Genre: Bass, UK Garage, House
Quality: MP3
Bitrate: 320 kbps
Total Time: 00:59:48
Total Size: 135 mb

Tracklist:
1. Silent Embrace (feat Elizabeth Bernholz) (06:00)
2. Solar (06:30)
3. All You Could Do (feat Elizabeth Bernholz) (04:16)
4. Initiate (07:38)
5. Lights (04:14)
6. Phosphorus (05:56)
7. A Matter Of Time (feat Elizabeth Bernholz) (07:06)
8. Sheya (05:35)
9. Hush (04:21)
10. Unknown (07:58)

This record is very special to the Monkeytown office.

Label head Gernot Bronsert stated recently: „It is very seldom that we receive a demo from a nearly unknown artist, that we sign right away for a 3 album deal.“

And indeed this is very seldom, maybe it is even a very first for the label and shows how strongly we believe in Alex Banks’ vision.His soundscapes are very emotional, but at the same time energetic and driving. Their intricate sound design and delicate layering make them seem new every time you play them.

The studied musician and multi-instrumentalist knows very well how to combine the complex and the pleasing, like his musical peers Nicolas Jaar, Jon Hopkins, Moderat or Bonobo. His well trained ear and his countless nights out as an enthusiastic clubgoer, make this album a feast for music lovers and dancefloor steppers alike.

In the making of “Illuminate” Alex has used his enormous synth library, stuffed with such mythical instruments as a Moog voyager, a SH 101 and an MS 10 (just to name a few), to its extent. The outcome is a beautiful album that might even be able to unite techno and dubstep lovers in their ever ongoing 4/4 versus breakbeat debate. But it would be very one sided to lean on the technical expertise that has led to “Illuminate”, there is also the unique vocal talent of Elizabeth Bernholz. Her voice lends the fragility of a Beth Gibbons paired with Björk´s otherworldly phrasing to the album´s first single „All You Could Do“ as well as to the album opener „Silent Embrace“ and the more balladeske shuffle of „ A Matter Of Time“. These songs have the potential to cross over into radio land without sounding “mainstream” in any way.

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Label/Cat#: Monkeytown Germany – MTR 039
Year: 17 January, 2014
Source: WEB
Format: MP3
Quality: 320 kbps
Size: 51 mb
Genre: Electronic
Style: IDM, Electronic

Tracklist:
1. Last Time (05:15)
2. Last Time (instrumental version) (05:14)
3. Last Time (alternate version) (06:01)
4. Last Time (Jon Hopkins remix) (05:56)

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Label/Cat#: Monkeytown Germany – MONKEYTOWN 038
Year: 10 January, 2014
Source: WEB
Format: Flac
Quality: Lossless
Size: 136 mb
Genre: Electronic
Style: Bass, IDM, Experimental

Tracklist:
1. Bakerman Is Breaking Bad (04:12)
2. Cream Theme (03:54)
3. Spezmodia (05:10)
4. Migmy (03:17)
5. I See Dizzy (03:39)

Perennial electronic troublemakers Mouse On Mars have been particularly active of late with their partnership with Modeselektor’s Monkeytown imprint, and on this latest EP it’s definitely not hard to hear why. There is a strong current of rave energy at work from the moment “Bakerman Is Breaking Bad” kicks off, as a flurry of acid and snapping electro drums get nasty with an old-skool electronica sensibility. “Cream Theme” has its own rose-tinted vision with dazzling chord stabs speaking of outdoor-party optimism as twisted through a juke-grinder. The title track too nods to tricky Chicago-born percussion and arrangement, although in this instance it sidles through a progressive spread of impulsive suites all crammed into five minutes, while “Migmy” says even more for footwork in a fraction of the time.

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Label/Cat#: Monkeytown Germany – MTR 032
Year: 1 July, 2013
Source: WEB
Format: AAC
Quality: 256 kbps
Size: 19 mb
Genre: Electronic
Style: House, Techno

Tracklist:
1. Negativity (04:56)
2. Negativity (instrumental version) (04:56)

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Label: Monkeytown
Catalog#: MTR34
Release date: 02-07-2013
Source: WEB
Format: MP3
Quality: 320 kbps
Size: 20 mb
Genre: Electronic
Style: Experimental, Electronic

Tracklist:
01 Bad Kingdom 04:24
02 Bad Kingdom (Instrumental) 04:23

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