teaser: Europ Europ - Mellowharsher

Here is a teaser for the upcoming Europ Europ 'Mellowharsher' record (ET015)... coming soon...

video: Gold Zebra - Useless Night (from Les Années Folles)

Miss Catty Stone (known from Europ Europ) has been so kind to produce a video for the Gold Zebra track Useless Night. This track will appear on the Les Années Folles compilation expected at the end of June (2012). See / listen / enjoy...

Minimal by Control Unit, Precision Surgery and Ekman

To people following my Enfant Terrible label and/or this blog it is no secret I love minimal electronics...not minimal synth but minimal electronics as in the perfect blending proto elektro and old school industrial... all of this done by (analogue) primitive equiment responsible for a raw and minimal sound. Although the trend (or continuing hype) is what most people refer to as minimal wave today (but I would rather like to call it soft synth) there are still some musicians around who come up with some excellent stuff in the field of my interests.

Here we are with not one but two new promising labels for example... Backwards and Kurzwellen. Backwards from Italy just released their first two vinyls. One by Fabio Orsi with experimental / drone / ambient music... very nice but not as smashing as the Control Unit they also released.

Control Unit is a duo armed with analogue synths, guitar, bass and voice. You get four long tracks on their debut LP that are sounding very much old school industrial. Could even be Throbbing Gristle recorded live during one of their performances. But at moments they also sound like a drugged out version of Milligram Retreat. The way the rhythms and pulses just go on is trance indulging and sounds primal. Guitar and voices are the topings on this psychedelic industrial trip.

One downer only... this could have been recorded late 1970's / early 1980's... so nothing new here... but still done in an excellent way...

The same could be said for Precision Surgery... only their old school industrial is less trippy and more rhythmic orientated with noisy sounds to finish it off. A bit like Doxa Sinistra at times but less freaky. More contemporary references are Le Syndicat Electronique in his last phase or even Haus Arafna but then less noisy. This project has now two split LP's out on the new Dutch Kurzwellen label. Both released are shared with the dark ambient project Necrosis (I)... which are maybe just the same people doing their ambient thing... Anyway... truly amazing stuff if you like your electronic music served dark, raw and minimal.

Still minimal but something else is Ekman. Behind Ekman is the same musician who is doing the minimal elektro pop of Bakeliet (see the 'Kamp Holland' compilation on Enfant Terrible). Out on Panzerkreuz (a Bunker sublabel) is his debut 12". Raw tekno and elektro tracks done in a minimal way. Sounding dark and nasty. This is stuff I would like to hear at some obscure and hidden party early in the morning. Still I can imagine this being played at the old Bunker parties with only a flashing strobelight in the dark... so maybe this is 1990's... but on the other hand to me this does not fell like retro music at all...

Here is a full track by Control Unit...

Here is a full track by Precision Surgery...

Here is a full track by Ekman...

The Control Unit and Precision Surgery records are for sale at the Enfant Terrible webshop... the Ekman is gone already... sorry but this one went fast and from what I hear it goes fast everywhere... so happy hunting for that one...

Full track previews for the Europ Europ release and the Les Années Folles compilation

Expected around early June is an Europ Europ release as well as the first release on the new Enfant Terrible sublabel Gooiland Elektro.

The Europ Europ record is a 10" mini LP entitled Europ Europ Curated By Enfant Terrible - Mellowharsher. Below you find a full track preview.

The first Gooiland Elektro release is a compilation entitled Les Années Folles featuring exclusive tracks by Sololust, Velvet Condom, Gold Zebra, Cute Heels feat. Devon Disaster, Tobias Bernstrup and Terminal Twilight. Below is the track by Sololust called The Spark as full track preview.

Exploitation film and soundtrack coming soon...

In the final stages of production are the film Exploitation by Edwin Brienen and the soundtrack for this film produced by Enfant Terrible. More on this film and the soundtrack can be found here...

out now: La Mort De L'Hippocampe - Symphonie Neuronale LP

Out now is the LP Symphonie Neuronale by La Mort De L'Hippocampe. Released by Enfant Terrible in collaboration with Verbascripta. Soon in your favorite (web)shop...

Here is an excerpt of the piece Der Mond (side B)...

review: Fräulein Luftwaffe - Leeches Come E.P.

The Etch Wear label from Norway did it again! After the great Epilektrician LP here is a single sided 12" LP... well that makes it an EP... by Fräulein Luftwaffe. You get served minimal electronics as I love them and as they should sound in my opinion... raw, industrial, slightly experimental electronic sounds done in a minimalistic way... and free so not restricted in sound and style...

The sound is unpolished but not necessarily analogue or lo-fi... and the music comes with some suprises... the rhythms are not your standard drum machine patterns we know by now from all the retro synth bands around... they are techno influenced, broken sometimes, elektro and IDM inspired maybe here and there... but again in an atypical way...

There is even a short of hip hop / trip hop beat to found in there... and the vocals are delivered in a distorted / industrialized rap kind of way... sounds maybe weird but it works for sure!

If you like Milligram Retreat and especially their rougher side then you should check this out for sure... also if you like the more adventurous minimal electronic of La Seduction Des Innocents this EP could be of interest to you...

The side with no grooves / no music is painted in the best minimal art way... if Frank Stella would have been into dots instead of stripes (in his black and white period) he would not have done better...

This record comes in an edition of 100 hand numbered copies. There are some copies in the Enfant Terrible webshop here...

Here is a full track from the record...