V/A :: ELKAmpilation.001 (Gizmo Lab, CD)

«…Blending optimistic digital beauty with a hint of darker shadows lurking in the background, ELKAmpilation.001 comes highly recommended at Igloo Magazine as one of the finest (and overlooked) compilations of 2003…»

Pietrobot, Editor

Selected cuts from Belarusian and Russian electronic music sculptors have been identified and extracted to compose and display their musical signatures for the world to digest. And it’s about time, too. Based on an event that took place in August 2002 called ELKA.MNSK.2002, ELKAmpilation.001 derives from the seeds that nurtured this events magnetic pulse headlined by Novel 23 (ArT-Tek, Shaped Harmonics, Bip-Hop, Pitchcadet). But the fury doesn’t stop there, the musicians featured on this exquisitely designed package have been composing for several years only to be finally realized by a larger audience as they began to expand into other areas of the world. Take artists like Vesna, Eu, Fizzarum, and Ambidextrous, for example; they have all managed to increase their wave of electronics on labels like n5MD (US), Pause2 (UK), Domino (UK) and Merck (US). With such a force behind the musical architecture of abstract electronics bubbling in Belarus and Russia, it comes with great pleasure to hear ELKAmpilation.001 giving more obscure artists a chance to display their musical thoughts.

Combing an attractive ambient distraction on tracks by i/Dex, Autism, Maks Retort, Randomajestiq and Dreamlin, it’s satisfying to hear such creative frequencies evolve into complete entities of their own. Elsewhere on this 70-minute extraterrestrial excursion, H. H. T.P., -Ed, and Milkman deliver a disjointed melodic synapse of experiments that flows smoothly into the brain as they bend and contort into audible oddities of electricity. Some of the highlights on ELKAmpilation.001 come from the artists who delve into sharper, imaginative and puncturing beats: D’iskord, Koordinates of Wonder, Novel 23 (featured on Pitchcadet’s Melodies Of Childhood For Advanced Imagination), Un-Co and JDPC offer up darkness wrapped in a veil of enlightened electronics (rhythms are crisp and energetic, melodies are fragile but accurate).

Blending optimistic digital beauty with a hint of darker shadows lurking in the background, ELKAmpilation.001 comes highly recommended at Igloo Magazine as one of the finest (and overlooked) compilations of 2003. The strength of each track forms a cosmic audio unit delivering a sound that remains light-years ahead of itself --Truly sophisticated, yet undeniably fresh. Fans of Suction, n5MD, Warp, Skam, and DUB take note.

ELKAmpilation.001 is OUT NOW on Gizmo Lab Records.

ELKAmpilation.001 Info

Gizmo Lab

ELKA.MNSK.2002

Original text here: [ >>> ]

Stereo Modus :: Ex Tempore (Shaped Harmonics, CD)
«…music is a personal variation of the new melodic-electronica music, and fits very well with the other artists who are a part of Shaped Harmonics so far: Ambidextrous, Syntetika, Supremus Plastice and Novel 23…»

Boban Ristevski, Contributor
Stereo Modus are two people from Novokuznetsk, a city located in the Siberian part of Russia and in a distance of about 3500 km from Moscow, where the label Shaped Harmonics is based. Ex Tempore is the debut album of Alexander Gorbatch and Valery Yakovlev who have previously released two demo CDR EPs. Shaped Harmonics is one of those labels that are building a relationship of trust with the listeners and fans, releasing music with carefully shaped harmonic melodies.

The fifth part of that mosaic of sound is Ex Tempore with its ten tracks and 45 minutes of gentle and intimate music, simultaneously minimal and expressive. This time the melodies are not too concrete and most of the tracks are not meant to be precisely remembered; as a result almost all of the track-titles are random numbers. The music is a personal variation of the vastly growing melodic-electronics genre, and fits very well with the other artists who are a part of Shaped Harmonics so far: Ambidextrous, Syntetika, Supremus Plastice and Novel 23, all of them are from Russia. Good, sincere and enjoyable electronic music without the complex territory of experimentation.

Ex Tempore is OUT NOW on Shaped Harmonics.

Original review loacated here: [ >>> ]

Stereo Modus “Ex Tempore”
(p) (c) Shaped Harmonics, 2003.
Cat No: SH CD 05

Moscow independent label Shaped Harmonics is glad to present you the first CD release of the debut album by Stereo Modus duo from Siberia. The duo has been created in Novokuznetsk in the year 2000, there are Alexander Gorbatch and Valery Yakovlev into this project. They released Navy EP demo cd-r in 2000, and two years later — Pour Lille Milles EP demo cd-r. Then another one year is over and Stereo Modus is ready to release their first long play album.

“Ex Tempore” is lyrical as fairy tale, album for people tired from all the noise and stir of a big city. Light and soft soundtrack for cycling twosome – it makes beautiful reality even more beautiful. Stereo Modus gets away their listeners from depressions – by beautiful melodies, slowly rhythmes and a little bit of stories from the early Orbital and late Gimmik. At the same time they make home melodious electronic minimalism and very sure debut.