Miles Whittaker has been an integral part of the Modern Love label since its inception in 2002 - as one half of both Pendle Coven and Demdike Stare, as well as his own productions under the MLZ and Millie monikers. After almost 15 years writing music, this is the first release Miles is putting out under his own name and marks a turning point of sorts in his production style, or rather, in its sequencing. The Facets EP brings together different ends of his production style, unifying elements of the House and Techno he’s most commonly released as MLZ together with the more broken production signatures usually reserved for Millie and the darkened tribalism of Demdike Stare. “Flawed” opens the set with a Linn loop from the archives, stretched and slowed down with an intoxicated aesthetic that’s somewhere between House and Dub, before “Lustre” re-configures source material originally keyed in by labelmate Andy Stott with a nice line in squashed percussion. ‘Primer’ on the flip extends from a Demdike Stare outtake and veers off into an analogue drum machine workout, before “On The Fly” ends the set with a recording made straight to mixing desk from an array of mis-wired and malfunctioning drum boxes, contact microphones and samplers, over at his studio The Mill earlier this year.
MP3 $3.96
08/08/2011
Produced slowly and meticulously, these seven tracks are the closet thing we've had to a new album by Manchester's Andy Stott since the release of his debut full-length Merciless in 2005. Taking influence from an array of seemingly incoherent noises, from the indefinable and unforgettable mind-tricks of Arthur Russell to the slow house of Kassem Mosse, from the alternate VHS realities of James Ferraro and Jamal Moss to the LinnDrum classics of the vintage Prince era -- these seven tracks create their own pace and agenda, largely shying away from the dancefloor in favor of something more complex and hard to define. Following on from the tribal malfunctions of opening intro "Signature," "New Ground" heads into a chasm of layered loops, creating a decimated and re-wired funk template colored in with frayed percussion and dislodged vocal samples. "North To South" starts off from similar ground but adds a shuffling vibe at a deceptively intoxicated 110 bpm. "Intermittent" is something altogether different, taking perfectly formed boogie templates and screwing with them until nothing quite fits, brittle elements floating in and out of time yet somehow keeping it together, before "Dark Details" delivers the most dancefloor compatible six-minute stretch of the set, all clanging stabs and dense percussion, somewhere between Shackleton and Bam Bam. "Execution" and "Passed Me By" end things off on a slowed-down tip, the former deploying an anaesthetized and padded 4/4 template sunk deeper into the abyss by deformed, time-stretched vocals, the latter ending off proceedings with a more...
MP3 $5.99
05/23/2011
"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
"After four sellout twelves and a barrage of critical acclaim - Deepchord's full length Echospace excursion "The Coldest Season" is at long last available on CD and Download - featuring material not featured on the EP's and different versions of familiar tracks - all expertly blended and mastered by Rod Modell for your enjoyment. Produced using nothing but vintage analog equipment : Roland Space Echo, Echoplex, Korg tape delay, vintage signal processors, noise generators, Sequential Circuits 8 bit samplers & numerous analog synthesizers - this project goes back to the heady days of Berlin-based proto dub/techno variations, recorded and produced in Detroit and Chicago. Three of the worlds most important Techno cities colliding to form a whole that perfectly bridges the gap between The Motor City's emotive arrangements, The Windy city's percussive robustness, and Berlin's life-altering Basic Channel continuum. Listened to in one sitting, "The Coldest Season" chooses a different arrangement and track selection to slowly build up momentum and space - taking in the muted steppers reduction of "Abraxas" and the icy soundscaping of "Ocean Of Emptiness" before reaching a crescendo of sorts with the radiant techno of "Elysian" and the majestic dub killer "Empyrean" - the most revered track on board bringing this 80 minute album to a perfect close. Where Echospace go from here only time will tell - but for the moment "The Coldest Season" is a perfect distillation of dub techno and BASS reductions for 2007 and beyond."--Boomkat
MP3 $9.90
03/21/2011
"'Deepchord Presents Echospace' is the collaborative project of Rod Modell and Steve Hitchell, two veteran producers based in Chicago and Detroit, now returning for a second full album for the Modern Love label. In the years that have passed since their last album both artists have been busy with numerous projects, developing their own Echospace imprint and recording under a number of different guises. Modell in particular has developed his longstanding fascination with location recordings, and some made in Tokyo over the last couple of years provided the source material for what would eventually become this new album. Indeed, a bonus CD that comes with the first pressing of the CD features 80 minutes of these original field recordings. Although the vapor trails of dub still colour the essence of much of this new material, 'Liumin' is an altogether more 'destroyed' experience than its predecessor, opening with the washed-out, beatless sequence of 'In Echospace', a track that somehow manages to harness the disorientating experience of being a stranger in a strange land, with only the flickering glow of neon lights for company. The album unfurls with stretches of immersive techno and low-end treatments compressed with a growling, unstable focus that's in turn oppressive and soothing, re-creating the uniquely ambiguous euphoria/narcosis that comes with extended sleep deprivation. It's an effect that's perhaps encapsulated best on 'BCN Dub', a heaving warehouse thump that's entwined with shortwave radio transmissions bringing to life a disembodied horn-section from deep in the ether. There may well...
MP3 $9.90
03/21/2011
Deepchord Presents: Echospace
Vibrational Studies (In Echospace) / Symbolism In Transition
Modern Love
"Rod Modell and Steve Hitchell return to Modern Love with this new twelve and soon to be released album 'Liumin'. In the years that have passed since their last album both artists have been busy with numerous projects, building their own Echospace imprint and recording under a number of different guises. Modell in particular has developed his longstanding fascination with location recordings, and some made in Tokyo over the last couple of years provide the source material for these new tracks. Although the vapor trails of dub still colour the essence of their recordings, 'Vibrational Studies' (an alternate version of album opener 'In Echospace) is a much more 'destroyed' experience than anything the pair have done before, deploying a relentless cycle of washed-out analogue loops layered around submerged field recordings and electric currents that somehow propel the track while at the same time immersing it in deep, murky waters. 'Symbolism In Transition', by sharp contrast, forms a padded configuration with a sort of late night shuffle so beloved of Move D, all squashed House vibes, sparkling melodic keys and bursts of barely there white noise - it's a gentle, beautiful thing."--Boomkat
MP3 $1.98
03/21/2011
"Long awaited album collecting both limited vinyl editions from Demdike Stare, fusing elements of everything from fragmented dub to Turkish, Iranian and West Indian library records, through to Scandinavian drone, Chicago House and beyond..." Demdike Stare is a long-in-the-making hookup between two shady characters operating at the fringes of Manchester's fragmented music scene: Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty. Miles has been a longtime affiliate of Modern Love as one half of Pendle Coven and under his own MLZ alias, while Canty is one of the city's most recognisable vinyl collectors, carrying an obsession with everything from obscure Nordic Doom records to Anatolyan funk albums, fuelled by his dayjob helping out at the Finders Keepers label. The project is named after Pendle's most famous witch: Elizabeth Southerns, aka Demdike. The tracks on 'Symbiosis' are drawn from elements of Turkish, Indian, Iranian, African and West Indian film soundtracks alongside Norwegian drone records, classic House templates, punctured dub, modified techno and the arctic noise perfected by Mika Vainio. Original sources and dense analogue experiments weave around eachother with little care for convention or stylistic expectation, instead throwing the pair's extensive musical knowledge into a set of tracks that, quite brilliantly, defy categorisation. The album opens with 'Suspicious Drone', a dense 6 minute opening that chugs a long like a malfunctioning mechanical beast, honing in on Lancashire's dark industrial landscapes before moving onto more exotic, balmy territory. 'Haxan Dub' (named after the film narrated by william burroughs about witchcraft) deploys fragmented dub echoes infused...
MP3 $9.90
03/21/2011
"23 tracks/160 minute triple album bringing together the "Forest of Evil", "Liberation Through Hearing" and "Voices of Dust" albums, plus an extra 40 minutes of bonus material recorded during the same sessions - completely exclusive to this release* Demdike Stare is a project made up of two insatiable vinyl collectors based in the north of England: Sean Canty (who works for the esteemed Finders Keepers label) and Miles Whittaker (a longtime producer and DJ who has released music under the MLZ moniker and as part of Pendle Coven). The music Demdike Stare make is hard to pin down, based largely around archival musical sources ranging from obscure library records to long forgotten jazz, early electronic, and industrial recordings, alongside an array of Iranian, Pakistani, Turkish and Eastern European material largely unknown in the Western world. Demdike Stare absorb and re-align these found sounds via their ever-expanding array of analogue machinery, ending up with something that is in part Plunderphonic, but ultimately completely new. Their music has sometimes been lumped-in with the Hypnagogic, Hauntological and, most recently, ‘Witch House’ movements, but ultimately Demdike Stare should appeal to anyone with an interest in everything from classic KPM library records through to the music of Basic Channel and all the way to the smudged, altered-realities of James Ferraro and The Caretaker. That is, at least until the next record, when the frames of reference might just change up and take them somewhere completely different…"--Boomkat. Received an 8.3 rating from Pitchfork. Note: the tracks...
MP3 $17.99
03/21/2011
"Andy Stott has had a very good year, imbuing his effortlessly cool productions with the kind of restless attention deficit that is rarely associated with Techno's typically icy reserve. And so we went from the deep string-laden padded 4/4 of his debut 'Replace' EP to the fierce, driving Basic-Channelisms of the mighty "Ceramics" 12", the warehouse mangle of "Demon in the Attic" and the squashed broken sublow of "Choke". Whilst all this was going on, an album was being very slowly assembled from over 100 tracks eating up valuable space on the reliable Modern Love hard drive. "Merciless" bears the fruit of almost a year's worth of relentless compiling, at one point or another this album could have taken any number of possible shapes and flavours, though the spacious narrative and emotive pulse of the final selection seems destined to have occupied the tracklisting that's infront of us now. Bar "choke" every track here is totally exclusive and previously unreleased, ranging from the suggestive 4/4 romance of album-opener "Florence" to the crushing percussive flutter of Detroit anthem Hi-Rise, to the harrowing simplicity of the title track itself. The end-note comes with a cover-version of Claro Intelecto's classic "Peace of Mind" - a version so wildly inventive and unexpected that it has caused what can only be described as an email frenzy from those lucky enough to have had promo copies of this album in recent weeks. As the track slowly slips "Merciless" into its final, cinematic crescendo, the promise of...
MP3 $9.90
03/21/2011
"Been working ourselves up into a sweat with this one, the first one-sided twelve on Modern Love for over a year and Andy Stott's biggest club destroyer since the release of his overnight sellout 'Hostile' 12" a couple of years back. "Night Jewel" is a classic dancefloor builder, amassing deadly ingredients on shuffling keys, a heaving square bassline and the kind of reverberating chords reminiscent of Move D at his most mesmerising. In between his darker bass experiments, it's nice to see Stott getting peaktime moves out of his system and onto the floor, channelling a heaving mass of feelgood vibes, honed and primed for the early hours."--Boomkat
MP3 $0.99
03/21/2011
"Andy Stott has developed a unique sound since his debut for the Modern Love label back in 2005. His first demos were heavily influenced by the square-bassline techno variations of Claro Intelecto, a longtime friend, mentor and eventually labelmate and collaborator. His first release, 'Replace' featured a mixture of disciplines that took in elements of Detroit Techno and Chicago House which fast captured peoples imagination with intuitive, warm melodies and fathomless bass weight. From that point on Stott continued to shift and adapt his sound to take in ever disparate influences, from the driving techno of Dave Clarke's 'Red' series through to Basic Channel, Dubstep, Garage and the minimalism of classic Sahko. His restless shift from traditional Techno blueprints through to the bottom-heavy signatures of dubstep and the steppers arrangements of garage have also placed him at the forefront of the dubstepXtechno hybrid sounds that have started to dominate the electronic music scene in 2008 alongside the likes of Martyn, Peverelist and T++. This compilation brings together selected tracks dating back to Andy Stott's debut back in 2005 and reaching all the way to his most recent material in 2008 - with none of them ever available on cd until now. Tracks feature here from the 'Replace', 'Ceramics', 'Handle With Care', 'Hostile', "Bad Landing', "Fear Of Heights', 'Massacre' and 'Nervous' EP's and stream through his fascination with deep, almost uncontainable basslines and ever inventive percussive shifts. The man really is a bit of a hero round these parts, and we...
MP3 $9.90
03/21/2011