Monday, March 07, 2022

Dopplereffekt Calabi Yau Space reissue, live dates, radio mix, Wavejumpers and archiving


The reissue on WeMe Records of Dopplereffekt's Calabi Yau Space (2007) on regular black double vinyl is now in stock online and record shops. Image and text comes from Bleep.com. The regular black vinyl reissue of Japanese Telecom's Virtual Geisha (2001) by Clone Records is also now available in all good record shops. 

'14 years since it was originally released on Rephlex Records, WeMe Records give Dopplereffekt's 'Calabi Yau Space' the reissue treatment, following their excellent reissue of 'Linear Accelerator'.

Here, eight analogue experiments referencing deep space exploration, theoretical physics and the supernatural are brought into focus. When first released, the tracks were perceived by some as Dopplereffekt at their most challenging and avant, standing out from the quintessential beat-driven electro sound they were known for. The tracks have an experimental focus and are at times completely free of rhythm, with shifting layers and discordant melodies achieving a rich, austere timbre. Close your eyes and turn it up for maximum effect as the precision sound engineering acts as a kind of eyelid cinema. It's certainly a departure as 'Calabi Yau Space' falls neatly into the lineage of deep experimental listening, and is more reminiscent of Schultzian Tangerine Dream or the Radiophonic Workshop than the fetish electro Dopplereffekt is best known for.

An essential record and a joyous outlier for Dopplerfekkt fans, and a great voyage for all fans of Techno in the sense that the term was originally intended.'

Dopplereffekt provided the 'Phones Down Finale Mix' on Afrodeutsche's The People's Party on BBC Radio 6 Music. She also plays Drexciya's 'Bottom Feeders' earlier in the show and talked about what a huge influence they were on her. I hope this podcast plays in every territory, if not the track-list is...

Dopplereffekt - Mitosis
Robert Hood - Internal Empire
Jeff Mills - Life Cycle
The Exaltics - The Truth
Cosmocracy - Human Rebellion
Joey Beltram - Drome

It's great to see more shows for Arpanet and Dopplereffekt getting booked. The line-up for Arpanet's Liverpool (8th April) show now has a a greatly expanded line-up and a new show for Berlin (14th April), Mexico city show on 30th April. has also just been announced (details for both are linked in comments). Dopplereffekt too are confirmed for a festival in Portugal (17th August).

Wavejumpers is a new group featuring Tyree Stinson (ex-Aquanauts), their debut release The Sunken Treasure EP on Underground Resistance will be released in late March/early April according to Rubadub. You can pre-order and sample all five tracks from it at this link. There is even a video interview with them at 56 min here

I found this excellent video from 2013 where Jessy Lanza discusses her love of Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe by The Other People Place. 

I've updated my 2014 post on Heinrich Mueller's remixes/remodels. I've included everything I know about for sure with links to play every track. There are now 42 of them and essentially he creates something unique to the original in most cases. The first was in '96 for Scan X and the latest was in 2018 for Death in Vegas. If you know of any I've missed please let me know, enjoy! 

This is an epic 2018 interview with DJ Stingray for DJ Mag. Some sample text below...

 'Sherard tells of a folder of plans and designs a freshly inspired Stinson gave him during this time, which he’s never shown in public. Sadly, these plans never came to fruition, as Stinson passed away of a heart defect aged just 32. “I took the Drexciya off my name out of respect,” explains Sherard. “I never wanted people to think, ‘Who is this clown riding off the back of Drexciya’s legacy?’ I wanted to show eternal respect and gratitude. He got me onto the world stage and I probably wouldn’t never have made it as a DJ to this stage otherwise. It wasn’t something I was after.”'

It seems like Drexciya saw each of their projects as existing in different dimensions from each other with perhaps The Other People Place being the most literal example of this. For the Storm Series they created the 'Dimensional Waves' production company and James Stinson talked about this as a way to 'wave jump' from label to label around the world as well. 'Dimensional Glide' (2001) by Transllusion could be a reference to this process, an evolution of their 'Wavejumper' track and concept from 1995.

So it could make sense to see Drexciya, Lab Rat XL, Transllusion, Shifted Phases, Abstract Thought, Jack Peoples and even Elecktroids as existing in different dimension from each other. Gerald Donald, as quoted as The Author aka Remnant of a Hydrogen Element in the film, Hydra Decapita (2010) by The Otolith Group has also talked about Drexciya in these terms, 'There is no more Drexciyan dimension. That dimension is closed. Like a wormhole, like a stargate. So this final information you read here is just remnants of a possible possibility that could have happened.'

One of my readers kindly shared this press release/info sheet and as it's not on Discogs or anywhere else online I'm archiving it here. This came with the vinyl album (there was a shorter press release that came with a four track promo 12" EP).

'A coffee table album for the cyber generation or music that can change by sonic revolution?

"Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe" is the work of an infamous and highly regarded techno artist from Detroit. An associate of Underground Resistance, his true identity remains a mystery.

An interstellar fugitive who fictionalises frequencies into unreal environments. "Lifestyles" combines the chilled summer sounds of low groove techno with eerie radar bleeps, muffled underwater echoes and liquid synth producing soundscapes that are romantic and unsettling, strangely alien yet strangely familiar. 

Highly evolved techno-chillout for darkness or light

Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe (Warp 90) is released on 3rd September'


No comments:

Post a Comment