Datawave, a.k.a. Gaétan V. started as a dj in 2010 and soon after as a producer, who, in few years, gained the support of DJ’s of the likes of Dave Clarke, DVS NME, Jensen Interceptor, Umek, etc. "Endogenic E.P." is the 15th Ukonx Recordings' release and sees the Brussel producer bringing to the attention of the electro lovers four new tracks. After releasing different digital EPs and three 12"s ("Conflux" on AC Records, "Datawave" on Natural Sciences and the new "Physical Sensor" on Fundamental Records), for this EP Datawave focused the sound on dance floor tracks with bouncy rhythms mixed with some industrial sounds and dark atmospheres. Paying tribute also to the fathers of the genre (Kraftwerk), Datawave, with "Subspace Halo", "Interaction", "Endogenic" and "Realms" created four tracks which sound robotic and suspended in time. You can check and purchase them here https://ukonx.bandcamp.com/album/endogenic-ep

I reviewed different releases by Alf Terje Hana's Athana and for his newest one he teamed up with Jody Linscott and Gary Husband. Jody Linscott is a session musician and percussionist coming from the U.K. Gary Husband played as session man with different people of the likes of Jeff Beck, Al Jarreau, Andy Summers, Steve Hackett and many more and he's been part of Level 42 as well as of Allan Holdsworth Group, Gary Husband & Friends, Gary Husband's Drive, John McLaughlin And The 4th Dimension, Olga Konkova Trio. The whole band for his latest live album titled ”The May Sessions 0518” is the following: Alf Terje Hana - Guitar, electronics, composer - Jody Linscott - Percussion, Gary Husband - Keyboards, Drums - Torgeir Nes - Electronics, live sampling Øyvind Grong - Bass, voice - (Guests on vocals: Astrid Kloster / Christian Hovda). The seven tracks of the album have been recorded at the Tou Scene and at the Folken MajJazz Festival the last year in May. Compared to the last album I reviewed I must say that on this one the "improvisation" factor maybe is influencing a little bit the home experience. I mean, there is always the presence of ambient atmospheres and distorted "in your face" guitars with heavy drumming moments but I feel that the jazzy improvisation kind of killed the experimental vein we had on the other releases. Probably this is due to the back experiences of the session men but this is a thing that my ear caught and it affected a bit the judgment. The album is available as CD, double LP and digitally. I received also a printed USB key which is containing the video file of the "Athana Symphonic Experience", the concert recorded in 2013 where as guest drummer Athana welcomed Stewart Copeland. A nice bonus...

Released on vinyl and on digital format with a bonus track, "Revelation ", is the first 12" of the Polish-Silesian producer Karol Gwód a.k.a. Nail which has just been released by Dominance Electricity. It contains two main songs: "Revelation" and "1987", plus three minutes short reprises of both. The title track is an epic ten-minute Electro trip with biblical lyrics in Polish language. The track is driven by a cool robot sounding vocals, broken beats and hypnotic melody arpeggios. The second track, '1987', is more fast and energetic and it's based on arpeggios, blasting effects and nice drum patterns. The fan of classic Electro in the vein of Kraftwerk or Anthony Rother will be pleased to check this one as the tracks are really catchy. Compared to the vinyl, this version has a three minutes bonus track titled "Revelation (Vocoder)", which is focused on the effected vocoder lines of the track. This one definitely sounds like the recording of a threat coming from an alien spaceship.
https://dominanceelectricity.bandcamp.com/album/revelation

Coming from Detroit, Francois Dillinger a.k.a. Ben Worden, is releasing on Ukonx Recordings his new EP titled "Space Trash". From his past as a dj, Ben learned how to make people move and how to mix different genres. For his new EP, he did the same by mixing industrial, techno and electro influences. The four mid tempo tracks "Space Trash", "Morose Code", "Cosmic Swamp" and "Sleepers" sound dark and minimal thanks to a mix of long spacey pads, many rhythmic sounds and balanced melodic patterns (the winner on this field is the closing "Sleepless").
As for many releases of the genre, the main element is the rhythm. Ben knows it very well and decided to use different kind of sources for that: treated sounds, distorted ones and classic electro drum sounds are forming a well-organized web of sounds that hypnotize the listener. Francois Dillinger will have different releases out in 2019 on labels like Natural Sciences, Dionysian Mysteries, Talahachi and more. He's preparing also an album and a new live set. Check the release here: https://ukonx.bandcamp.com/album/space-trash-ep

One famous phrase of the philosopher George Santayana was saying: "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it", well on a less serious circumstance, I'm happy that since we didn't have the occasion to check nice stuff that didn't see the light in the past, we are able to check it now. Many labels are digging in the past to find what we left uncovered and they are doing a nice job by giving some late "fame" to bedroom producers: people that maybe weren't interested into finding their space into the labels' rosters but that were producing their music to satisfy their need to express themselves. One recent example is Rx-101, Dutch techno/electro/acid producer which has seen released some old recordings by Suction Records. The same is happening with Novocibirsk, a project that Hervé Isar run from 1982 to 1993. On those years he recorded many tracks which he later saved on DAT tapes (unluckily many haven't been recorded and are lost forever). Time ago, he took some from his DAT tapes archive and self-released some CD-rs. Now, some of those tracks have been cleaned and remastered and are seen the light properly distributed and publicized by ProductionB, sublabel of Boredom Product which is starting their activities with this release. Novocibirsk music is taking us back to the times of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), the pioneering French public center in electro-acoustic research founded by Pierre Schaeffer in 1958. That experimental approach has been taken as inspiration by Hervé and mixed with some other influences of the likes of Klaus Schulze, Jean-Michel Jarre (see "Train To Novocibirsk") as well as Kraftwerk (like on "Die Stadt - Novocibirsk II" or like the vocoder experiments on "Télévision 1945" which are recalling me "Autobahn") or Telex (see "Flugzeug"). Luckily these sounds are not lost forever and more are going to follow! Welcome ProductionB, we wish you a long life full of great releases! P.s. "Télévision 1945 (volume 1)" is available on LP, CD and digital download/streaming.