I guess I was sleeping, but an explosion of techno-house releasing spree seems to have taken place pretty much overnight, and as small new dance record labels run by young Djs and club-goers and big fake-indie major-label subdivisions and sub-labels and sub-branches pop up like mushrooms trying to grab the coolest hit for their catalogues, at every release my concern about commercial and non-commercial stepping on each other, blending and becoming unclearly separated grows... In this case the line is pretty thin too, which, I have to honest does not make me very comfortable... Of course I understand that sampling Jon Bon Jovi riffs and making people bounce can be fun, but I also come from a place where quality has been totally forgotten and techno music is being made for money and for drunk assholes to dance on acid until 7 o'clock in the morning and then die in a car crash while trying to drive home. I recall a certain point in time where a desperate semantic attempt of classification was being made by calling the good stuff "techno" and the bad shit "tekkno", but now I don't know anymore, the line is fuzzy, maybe it is "teckno", maybe "tekhno"... I am all about mixing genres and crossing over, don't get me wrong, I am just afraid about where it is gonna lead us musically and qualitatively (and that's all I am dealing with, 'cause I'm not even going into politics). But and if there really is such a thing as "teckno" or "tekhno" then internationally acclaimed West Coast Dj Dan and his newest double CD "Roundtrip" is a good example of that. Former Olympia, WA, native design student, Dj Dan hooked up with DJ Ron D Core (with whom he opened the No-Doz club), the Bay Area DJ collective Funky Techno Tribe, Jim Hopkins of the Electroliners (with whom he co-wrote the classic "Loose Caboose"), DJ Carl Cox and XL Records, Angel Alanis and Brandon Riley (with whom he founded the Musique Multimedia Group and his own vinyl imprint In-Stereo Records) and many others and is now one of the most traveled DJ's around, counting residencies in the most prestigious clubs all over the world, stages shared with Bowie, Fat Boy Slim, Digweed, Moby, Rhymes, awards as Los Angeles' #1 DJ (LA Times), #7 out of 50 of America's Favourite DJ's (BPM), one of the world's top 100 DJ's (DJ Magazine) and of course remixes for Groove Armada, Filter, A Tribe Called Quest, Olive and Orgy (where he even went platinum with their cover of New Order's "Blue Monday"). Even though on the first disc he spins west-coast style party-house pitching in hip-hop and dance/pop, in the second disc fortunately he goes back into a more serious frame of mind with darker and funkier beats and possibly even more of his CDJ 1000 sounds throughout the record (which by the way is a continuous live take straight from vinyl). Some of those sounds, field recordings from street noise and various ground and air transportation means also make up the intro and outro of his 2CD, which is justly entitled "Rountrip" and came out October 8th on young NYC outlet Kinetic records. Music doesn't make people smarter (arguably) but I sure hope a powerful and influencing DJ like DJ Dan will not contribute making them dumber either, by keeping that thin line a there as an actual line!

New album for this Norvegian duo which saw their single "Secret Sky" reaching an high position in the charts in Norway, Sweden and Denmark a couple of years ago. After these years of silence the band decided to come back with a new single ("All Over" which is also the second track of this album) and a new CD titled LITTLE GIRL LOST. The eleven tracks we find here are deeply influenced by bands like Garbage, Cranberries, Cardigans but with some exception concerning some sounds solutions (see for example "Mermaid" with its Noisex like noisy rhythm lines) and their melodic tendency to pick up something from goth (like on "Vandalist Virgin") and new wave (see my favourite song of the lot, the beautiful "I Need My Love", which is the only one sung principally by a male voice). I didn't find this album a must but some songs are highly appreciable and a couple of them are really beautiful. Maybe they focused too much the album on mellow and melancholic atmospheres but when they decide to make the energy bust they are capable of doing a good work as on my second favourite one: "Never Fall Again". A little curiosity: this album has got Ted Skogmann and Vegard Blomberg from Apoptygma Berzerk helping for programming and drums.

With the exception of one track "Tomorrow's Tuesday" by UK one man band The Glimmer Room (aka Andy C.) is an instrumental, fortunately. The music is a visionary journey that has the organics of a movie soundtrack more than that of a record, in my opinion. It's synthpop music, melodic electronic music, ambient synthscapes, heavenly pads with creative drum patterns. I had to listen to it about 5 times 'cause the music was so sweet, laid back, relaxing and peaceful that I kind of lost the focus... Neu Harmony has a lot of records with the same base dna but this one (which among other things has a nice classical art work) is kind of more "happy" sounding (in lack of a better term). It really sounds like a Klaus Doldinger "The Unending Story" soundtrack at times, and even if I can't come up with another movie right now, I am sure that a lot of other movies might find this album a great match. The tracks float carried away by the soft but infectious beats in what might remind you of a Gary Numan or a Gary Flanagan album at times... If you like calm electronic synth music give this a try and check out their distributor's website (link above) for a lot more stuff...

The album «Polus» released in 2001 is a stunning example of psycho-acoustic music. Creators of the album - the trio Portable Palace do not limit themselves to just the acoustic media. Instead, they employ various chemical reactions and optical phenomena that nature is so rich in. The music on this CD is only one side of Portable Palace’s activities. Close the windows, leave yourself to your own devices, concentrate and insert this CD. This is the only way to notice all the nuances of musical compositions found on «Polus». The sound on the very brink of human perception, never fading out completely while never developing it into a crescendo, without any jumps or frantic rhythms. The long curve of otherworldly energy is constantly crossing the composition cutting out anew the settled outlook. So, the lightning must exist. The primordial energy of the Cosmos. It leaves its stamp in the eyes of those who have seen it, like a permanent photograph stuck in one’s memory. The real event with a definitive form gains mythological shades in the music of Portable Palace. This is not a punishment or a sign from heaven telling us about the imminent apocalypse. It’s the encyphered message to the world, concealed by its own shell. The strictly underlined electrical zigzag that has ripped through the sky and is now hurrying towards the earth with the need of a quick kiss. The visual flight of this rocket lightning lasts for a few seconds, nevertheless, it holds another dimension within itself, where the seconds will last for an hour. An hour of musical metamorphoses and transfiguration. An hour of an alluring diffusion of the sacred and the profane, the serenity and the passion, the suffering and the purification, the anxiety and the tranquility, the languor and the sweet bliss. Its falling is not useless, because the finale will occur as the union of all earthly elements. It will be the time of universal harmony and the final crystallization of the ideas but the listener is here to finish off this moment with his/her thoughts. «Polus» is only a way to the truth, but it should be traveled very carefully, not missing any little change. The cosmic sound of «Polus» is a concentrated expression of the participants’ inner worlds, a musical projection of three separate individuals - those of Alexander Kalin, Eveline Domnic and Dmitriy Gelfand, hence the three-dimensional feel and the fullness of sound. The cold suspension is laid on top of the squelching surface of the dwelled landscape as the air is filled with the enveloping mist of cavernous silence. The clearness and pastoral gentleness, run through electronic millstones, is turned into a diamond-field of coloured pieces, and each piece filters the magnetic light of celestial bodies. That’s why with all of its strictness «Polus» doesn’t feel empty and homeless. It’s akin to the initiation process after which the world is never the same again.

Nicola Tesla, The godfather of electricity became the figure that served as an inspiration for the trio Portable Palace to create their «Emit» album. The album includes 8 compositions, united organically by the theme of electricity, presenting itself via sound on this record. «When I close my eyes the first thing I see is a plane dark blue background similar to the color of the clear starless sky. In several seconds this picture is revived by numerous shimmering green sparks, approaching me layer by layer. After that the right side is lit by a beautiful decoration consisting of two parallel systems of tight right-angle lines. These lines are brightly colored but the dominating colors are yellow-green and golden. The lines are immediately increased in brightness and everything sparkles with shimmering portions of light. This whole picture slowly passes through my field of vision...», - these are the words that Tesla used to describe his imagination in action while coining his next invention. And this is the picture that comes to life with the first sounds of «Emit». Head-spinning whirlpools, sea tides, sand dunes rich with shell pearls, whispering of the wind and the diversity of living world follow. Everything seen through alien eyes. The galactic evaporation of earthly dwelling, the round and spiky figures fill the space of «Emit». Various rumbles are seamlessly integrated with ordinary sounds wrapping the listener with the light shroud. Moon shimmerings of the daylight, the voices stretched, coming from the outside, The plasma spheres of raindrops - this is the vision of the world seen through this synthetic shroud. The spinning of atoms and molecules becomes audible. The secrets of creation are not known yet but each single second of «Emit» draws you nearer to the final solution. The last composition «Data Link» fades out - one pressing of the «repeat» button - and you’re in the beginning once again. The beginning of the CD, but not that of understanding. The understanding develops along the spiral and becomes clearer and fuller with each coil (or listening). Is it the Jacob’s stairway ultimately leading to God? «When an idea appears it is immediately finished off by my imagination: I change the construction, «switch on» the device while bringing it to perfection, making it alive in my head. In a similar way I’m capable of bringing the idea to perfection without even touching anything. Only then I give the final shape to this product of my brain. All of my inventions worked in such way...» - Tesla, the «inspired prophet of electricity» wrote. «Emit» stimulates the listeners imagination in building complex and whimsical constructions of biblical stairway and who knows, maybe one day comes the hour when this ideal image finally materializes.