DJ Stingray interview & Dopplereffekt US tour 2012

There is a very frank audio interview with DJ Stingray in which he mentions working with both James Stinson and Gerald Donald. He was speaking with Red Bull Music Academy (Gerald Donald has already done an audio interview with them) and we learn amongst other things that James Stinson slowed down his track, ‘Telepathic Seduction’, for release as Mystic Tribe A.I. on the B-side of The Other People Place 12” and that he was working on Urban Tribe material with Gerald Donald which eventually came out as the recent NRSB 11 12” on WeMe. He also talks about becoming the Drexciyan DJ and balaclavas versus ski-masks. It’s worth a listen to the whole program if you have the time.

http://www.redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/5235/

Here is a bunch of live videos below that I know of from Dopplereffekt’s US tour. There are a few newish or at least yet to be released tracks in there. I did get one report from the US tour of a bad experience they had in San Francisco which I think is worth including here if it can stop it happening again.

“Hey, I just wanted to share that the Dopplereffekt show in San Francisco was a complete disaster. Thanks to the amateur organizers and amateur venue. This "event" was billed as happening from 930pm - 2am. They tried to fit as many DJs as they could before Dopplereffekt finally came out around 1am. Absolutely squeezing them for time. When they came on stage their keyboards were set next to the wall, and things were obviously not "ready" like they wanted things to be. A guy had to come on stage and move their keyboards to the center of the stage obviously this is something they probably requested way before the show. Then when they started the sound was not on at all, even though they had started and they were obviously playing, Gerald had to motion about 20 times for the sound to be turned up. The songs and performance were absolutely incredible until around 1:53am the house lights were turned on and sound turned off in the middle of their performance,..insane...Gerald motioned for the sound to be turned up several times, then he eventually broke their characteristic silence and yelled "THE SOUND! TURN IT UP!" through his mask. The sound did not return. He stormed off the stage, and removed his mask as he went out a door at the back of the venue, with Michaela following him. Bouncers then began encouraging everybody to leave since the venue was "closing" at 2am. This really is a tragic experience for a group with so few dates on this tour, and traveling so far. I've listened to Gerald's projects for 6 years now. These performances should have been something special. I don't expect the Doppler to return to the USA anytime soon, or California for that matter. Fucking Amateurs.”

Dallas 25/5/12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jxuB_nT8cA

Movement, Detroit 27/5/12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWEdKY6gJus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp-uzxtKeC8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKQ30XvX5_4

San Francisco 2/6/12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoVPTeH7T9Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0lfRHhMDWU

Der Zyklus Krypton 84 review

This is the first new material from Heinrich Mueller under his Der Zyklus guise since the Cherenkov-Radiation 12” way back in 2008. These new tracks are cut from quite a different template however but will not be unfamiliar to anyone who has been listening to his work in the last few years. There are two new full length tracks here and one untitled short piece as well. Both take their names from isotopes, 'Krypton 84' and 'Thorium 232'. Isotopes are not stable and are constantly decaying, so much so that they are referred to as having half-lives. Perhaps Mueller sees these tracks as short soundtracks or laments to these active but still decaying and unpredictable isotopes? For me 'Krypton 84' brings images of orbit to mind as it weaves various sounds and tempos into ever changing patterns. Certain arresting new sounds continue to appear throughout and it keeps your attention because of this. 'Thorium 232' is far more sinister and nightmarish in its slow paced and reverb drenched grandeur. Musically it also reminds me of the darker Zwischenwelt tracks. There is a short untitled track next that I actually liked very much and would have enjoyed more if it had developed longer, all textures and atmosphere. All the tracks are vocal-less and are all the more disembodied and utterly alien for it. I don’t think anyone else could be making such unfamiliar sounding music as this.


Interestingly this does not appear to be available anywhere as an official download. This could be interpreted as significant as we are dealing with music that does need a certain amount of patience and good quality audio reproduction to fully appreciate it. The only way to get this artifact is by spending an amount of money (far more than for a download), waiting for it to arrive, going through the experience of handling the vinyl, placing it on a turntable and listening to it on a presumably decent sound system. This latter ritual aspect is important with this type of music too I think. Thankfully there remain labels such as WeMe, No Comment etc who are willing to work with Mueller in this way. In theory these artifacts do become rare, collectable and hold their value at the very least which does compensate somewhat for the difficulties in obtaining them. This is available now on mint coloured vinyl from this link You can listen to 'Krypton 84' here.

I was very kindly sent a test pressing for review along with turned out to be a great new album from CN, RA. You can it check it out at their BandCamp link and follow the link there for the limited blue vinyl 12” only on WeMe.