Ilian Tape Germany 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Turin techno stalwart Andrea has been serving up slabs of goodness on Ilian Tape since way back in 2012, though "Ritorno" is remarkably his very first full-length excursion. The 12 track set is far more varied than his fine club-focused singles, with the Italian variously turning his hand to swelling, Global Communication style ambient techno ("Attimo"), ultra-deep breakbeat dreaminess ("SKLYN"), melodious, jungle-influenced IDM ("LS September"), bassbin rattlers ("TrackQY", the skittish brilliance of moody roller "Reinf"), dreamy soundscape techno ("LG_Amb"), angular fusions of bass music and dark Italo-techno ("Drumzzy") and picturesque ambient dub slow jams ("Twin Forests").

Review: Andrea opened this sophomore album Due In Color mostly during 2020 and 2021. You may reverb that those times were slightly crazy due to the small matter of a pandemic which is what lead the artists to explore a world of more hazy and experimental jazz sounds. That in turn inspired him to use more acoustic sounds in his music and so this is a record that turns its back on dark and booming club spaces and heads instead towards blooming fields of expansive downtempo, textured ambient and dreamy soundscapes.

Review: Building a refuge for exiled planets.
Conscious absorption of rare elements.
Cloudlike observations of evaporated landmasses.
A wistful emulation of escape.
Preparing food for the moon.
Strange situation test for non-terrestrial officers.
Counterfeiting consumer electronics.
Retuning GABAergic interneurons.
Accompaniment for affective picture systems.
Rituals of self-decompression.
Inquiries into trace minerals.

Review: Jameszoo and Niels Broos are Rolrolrol and Music is their first album. They describe it as "a puttylike exercise in pop, modern jazz and electronica" and it builds on many years of working together on the likes of Brainfeeder and Alpha Pup. The whole thing is doused in vivid and vivacious synth work that brings life and colour to every groove, whether a broken beat or a future hip-hop workout, an experimental cosmic house cut or an infectious bit of boogie. Amongst the magnificent melodies are guests like Jamie Woon who bring real soul to 'Surprise', and it all makes for a playful but triumphant record of brain-cleansing electronic sound.

Review: With the exception of Skee Mask and the Zenker brothers, no producer has released more EPs on Ilian Tape than Stenny. For that reason, it would be fair to say that "Upsurge", his first foray into the full-length format, is long overdue. In keeping with the creative opportunities provided by the longer format, the 12-track set is framed as a "journey through the ups and downs", with hazy strolls through ambient, IDM and dub techno sitting side by side with skittish, off-kilter and occasionally dark forays into more club-focused electro, post-jungle and broken techno territory. There are plenty of subtle variations to be found within both broad categories, with Stenny managing to provide a unified front thanks to the pleasingly atmospheric and mood-matching nature of the collected cuts.

Review: There's an undeniably far-out feel to the Zenker Brothers' second album, Cosmic Transmission, which adds further layers of trippy textures, hallucinatory sounds and smoky intensity to the aural blueprint first explored on their 2015 debut full-length Immersion. There's much to admire throughout, from the mind-bending ambient weirdness of opener 'When Nothing is Safe', and the slipped dub haze of 'Whose In Control', to the drug-addled IDM of 'Natural Connection', and the polyrhythmic techno trip of 'Divided Society'. Most striking of all is the trio of tracks that close the album, all of which are powered forwards not by heavy techno beats (or even their usual crunchy, off-kilter breakbeats) but rather a series of ear-catching, fuzz-soaked synthesizer arpeggio lines.

Review: The rise of Ilian Tape has been piloted by Dario and Marco Zenker with a steady assurance, so it makes perfect sense for the brothers to helm the first long player project from the Munich label. Immersion is a vibrant, atmospheric stroll through their various influences and inspirations with plenty to admire amongst the ten tracks. There is the bustling, leftfield breakbeat techno of "TSV WB" and pounding "High Club" (a no-nonsense dancefloor assault blessed with occasional eyes-closed chords), as well as sublime tech-jazz of "Cornel 21" and pitched-down junglisms of "Innef Runs". Interestingly, there are also a number of crusty, distorted ambient interludes, with "Erbquake" sounding particularly potent.