Various
Collaboratory EP

FREIZEIT002 by Phil Evans

I would often wander into the forest after school. This wasn’t Sheffield, or Manchester, as much as I thought I wanted it to be. Sometimes the mushrooms we picked would make me sick, which added a vital sense of adventure to the days and weeks that could pass without much happening at all. Something to talk about, a story we made together. It was a dead city. Not great, not terrible. Nothing to break an illusion. We had no idea what we were doing, but a reality check was the last thing we were looking for. Wasted from the youth centre, we would go and listen to people spin records at Skandal. The melodies in The Cure songs lingered with me for days. I wanted to make my own music. I started to leave early and bang onmetal into a microphone. I saved up and bought a Casio FZ-1 sampler and drum machine. We poured ourselves into bands. We would stay in and practice, programming MIDI on an Atari ST-1024. Nobody would hear this music. My Korg MS-10 was stolen by an ex-band mate from our rehearsal basement. I would dive inside myself, burrowing a tunnel to a new world. Configuring an inner system. A fascination with Clock DVA became an obsession with techno. KLF. Future Sound of London. Themelancholy was still there, in traces, but it was moving somewhere, looking for company. Growing. Ecstatic. Ecstasy! I left the basement to share this with others. I moved to the big city and the music got faster. My process got faster. Collaborations. Plug-ins. That’ll do. Take it to the people! What used to be a personal practice became a public practice. A call and response. A communal effort. Abstract numbers heard this music. My technique sharpened. My studio served a function greater than my own; a system outside myself. Then I found the DAT tapes, and the VHS footage. They had traveled with me. Far from a nostalgic exercise, this was a reclamation of the original impulse. A reminder of the music I always wanted to make. Reorientingmyself with analog machines and obsolete formats, I stole hours to bring this work into the world. I hope that it speaks to you.

Four killer tracks of high grade electronic soul from James Baker AKA REKAB. A fantastic EP showing both breadth of style and respect for the roots and traditions of the music from this artist.

Stoned Pilot continues his flight with the second leg of his collaborative journey!This time, Shonky welcomes Italian producer and friend Giammarco Orsini into his studio, resulting in 4 tracks that merge together the dreamy and driving influences of the two artists, always with a rich presence of analog synths and drum-machines.

Over the last couple of months, the records of Berlin-based duo CYRK have become a hot commodity within DJ circles. Their releases on Rawax and Vakant are firm favorites of selectors like Helena Hauff, Steffi, Alienata, Laurent Garnier,Slam, Maceo Plex, Solid Blake or Len Faki. Time Zero, CYRK's new label (together with their friends Flash Fab and Lad Caduceus), marks the next step for the prolific duo. Dreamscience, Time Zero's inaugural EP, features five tracks that traverse CYRK's influences in style, adding their own trademark twist. Tracks like "Collateral" and the eponymous cut are diving deep into Detroit's electro heritage, while "CS70m" takes cues from classic electronica and IDM. "Automotive" is a throbbing broken beat work-out with plenty of soul and "Monument", the EP's closing tracks is a string-laden journey in itself. Get ready for the next chapter in CYRK's irresistible ascent!