"The simple fact is that Techno and Electro albums don’t tend to work. When they do, everyone sits up and takes notice. Think Derrick May’s “Innovator” , Carl Craig’s “More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art”, Jeff Mills’ “Waveform Transmissions”, The Other People Place “Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe’, Psyche / BFC’s ”Elements” and most recently Ricardo Vilalobos’ “Alcachofa”. That’s more than 15 years of Techno reduced to a handful of albums defining their moment, pushing the boundaries a little bit further. “Neurofibro” is one such rarity. An album that works from start to finish, taking in a myriad styles, paying homage to the masters and developing some new tricks all its own. Claro Intelecto first made an appearance in early 2003 - his remarkable “Peace of Mind” 12” fast becoming the most discussed dancefloor debut for years. The name for his hugely anticipated debut album ‘Neurofibro' derives from the nerve disease Neurofibromatosis - a set of genetic disorders which cause tumors to grow along various types of nerves and, in addition, can affect the development of non-nervous tissues such as bones and skin. It’s a disease that has accompanied Mark Stewart throughout the recording of his debut album - and has ironically provided him with its perfect Techno title. The album is a masterpiece of continuously shifting mood and tempo - controlling the floor from the Theo Parrish paced deep house of “Percentages” to the piano-driven soundscaping of “Baudrillards Supper” to the crushing Warehouse acid of “Back” to the...
MP3 $9.90
03/21/2011
"Mark Stewart returns with his first new transmission this year, an incredible study in deep, woozy narcotic / New York House through to relentless dub delayed shuffles. 'Chadderton' on the A-side is an astonishing slice of deep, slow and sleazy midnight House, complete with squashed chords and a frayed spine that's primed for peak-time narcosis. 'Above' opens the flip with relentless chords and a shuffling percussive line that never lets up, mixing the techno classicism of Rob Hood with Shed's inimitably shuffled patterns under his EQ'd alias, but when the bassline appears its just Claro through and through - deep and deadly. The final coda on the EP is a two minute beatless shift with echoes of Eno and AFX shimmering at its core, delivering a rare glimpse into Stewart's ambient operations and rounding off another indispensable EP beautifully mastered and cut by Dubplates & Mastering for added dancefloor pressure."--Boomkat
MP3 $2.97
03/21/2011
"We've spent so long in the company of this magical album it's impossible to express our deep, unending love for it. Small and perfectly formed, 'Metanarrative' explores Mark Stewart's experiments with midnight techno variants, utilising a stylistic reduction that looks for warmth and detail in every nook and cranny. Of course, over the last couple of years Stewart has been best known for his 'Warehouse Sessions', a series of stripped twelves that make use of an astute line in reduction and a love of sonorous basslines to develop a sound best noted for its devastating production and frayed dub sequences. Metanarrative is a different beast altogether, built around 8 tracks that provide the backbone and emotive arc for the grand narrative alluded to in the title. Gone are the uncompromising percussive arrangements of the Warehouse Sessions, and instead the sound explores a more melodic, quietly euphoric display of opposites : sweet melodies and heavily padded bass frequencies, introspective conceits and propulsive percussion, and populist arrangements built with a deviant sound palette. Opening track "Operation" sums this process up perfectly, the arrangement building around a succession of chord progressions and shuffling percussion that develop sweet tension and momentum without ever breaking into the obvious - the breakdown just never comes. "Harsh Reality" tugs more openly at the heartstrings with an intro that gives you every reason to believe that what's to follow might be the most readily commercial material from this artist yet, but the eventual bassline inverts expectations and delivers...
MP3 $7.92
03/21/2011
"Mark Stewart has been recording under the Claro Intelecto moniker for a decade now, and every time he has a new record out we think its the best thing he's ever done. This latest two-tracker really does make us wonder about Claro's recording process, he is an artist that seems so removed from the changes and trends emerging out of electronic music on an almost weekly basis, and yet something about his work always seems to subliminally reference the zeitgeist in his own inimitable way. The twelve opens with 'Back In The Day' - a slow and compressed House reduction making use of submerged strings and heavy kicks, it's a track that employs a filthy New York aesthetic with that distinctive, modified square bassline that's become a Claro signature over the years, but now somehow bent out of all recognition. As far as we're concerned - it's just an out and out dancefloor classic. 'New Life' on the flip is also wired for the floor, yet features skewed and euphoric chord sequences that evoke the hazy nostalgia of Ducktails or Oneohtrix Point Never re-imagined via tubular dancefloor machinations. It has that strange effect of driving peaktime activities without ever resorting to cheap thrills, evoking that same 1980's television haze refracted through the tubular machinations of 21st century club music."--Boomkat
MP3 $1.98
03/21/2011
"Following on from the frustratingly scarce teaser twelve “Lacan/Episode” that sold out in a single afternoon, Mark Stewart is back with his first release for Modern Love available for wider public consumption. A sort of thank you for everyone’s patience. Of course, patience is a virtue that the techno community has had to become well versed in over the last couple of years. patience for the full structure of tracks to emerge. Patience for that barely noticeable narrative that infects only the most developed forms of what has become known as “minimal”. “Patience” is a masterclass in self restraint and redux, an apt title for the opening track on this perfectly formed EP. It will remind you of warehouse parties in a blurred haze of hindsight, an acid klunk stripped into a fragmented prism of colours - melodic yet utterly determined to stick to its agenda. this is machine music perfectly honed for the body. The flipside is much fuller; pregnant with abandon and fizzing chemicals, a widescreen adaptation of chicago anthems imbued with a startling effortlessness - a Claro “special” as some people have already christened it. Mighty."-- Boomkat
MP3 $2.97
03/21/2011
"This long awaited compilation marks the end of Mark Stewart's 'Warehouse Sessions', with all the tracks in the series re-mastered at Berlin's dubplates and mastering including a bonus, previously unreleased track, 'W6' available for the first time. The first 12" in the series was released back in early 2006, designed, honed and tweaked for the floor with a shift in focus towards more stripped-down and minimally constructed 4/4 variations with the headier end of the warehouse in mind. "New Dawn"rotates on a heavy slug of post-industrial genius taking the metallic clunk of Monolake/T++ slowed right down and married with the faint ghost of Rhythm and Sound. "X" domiated volume three and is perhaps the best known track in the series - delivering a gargantuan chug through a barely contained 4/4 spasm, underpinned by distorted stabs and a hollow line in thumping kick-drums. It's all fairly restrained until the half-way mark when things suddenly go deep under the influence - a live session of warbling dub stabs fed through a widescreen echo-chamber making for a low-end psychosis that's just devastating. "Only Yesterday" was written in homage to Mr Fingers, a slow, deep, pulsating House classic utilising a sick padded bass progression, caressed by pristine hi-hats and very little else. "Instinct" opened volume four with a percussive spine so crisp and spacious it almost threw us off our chairs the first time we heard it, while "Post" on the flipside pushed us a few hours deeper into the night with a twilight...
MP3 $9.90
03/21/2011
"First new twelve from Mark Stewart in over six months - and it's an out and out KILLER. "When The Time Is Right" is just one of the deepest, deadliest tracks we've heard in some time, all sumptuous pads and midnight chords capturing that intangible thread between narcotic House at one end and Berlin Dub at the other. Over almost 9 minutes the textures gradually shift until a point of transition halfway that channels in those shimmering, barely conscious keys that mess with your mind and take you into balmy, impossibly glamorous climes. No producer we know is quite as able to offset bass weight with so much emotive subtlety without ever getting lost in self indulgence or schmaltz - it's a truly truly amazing piece of future Techno. Over to the flipside and the much more edgy proposition of 'Round & Round', a gargantuan, modified square-bassline jacker built on multi-layered percussion and an intensifying wall of chords that edges its way into the mix with every sequence only to once again drop out into the ether, leaving nothing but that endlessly spacious arrangement of snares and bass to well and truly topple the dance. Immense."--Boomkat
MP3 $1.98
03/21/2011