ASTRALWERKS NEW RELEASE 411 / WINTER 1996
* Spacetime Continuum - Emit Ecaps CD/CS/2xLP (ASW 6147)
*Emit Ecaps Limited Edition CD (ASW 6176)
Limited Edition Release Date: 1/23/96 CD/CS/2xLP Release Date: 2/6/96
Scottish ex-patriate Jonah Sharp moved to San Francisco five years ago from
London where he had been involved in the then-nascent acid-jazz scene as a
drummer. Once in the Bay area, he fell hard for the cheap analog keyboards
and synthesizers which were available. Since then, Jonah has become the
lightning rod for the vibrant San Francisco electronic music community and
celebrated collaborations with the likes of Pete Namlook (FAX Label), David
Moufang (Move D., Deep Space Network), and Bill Laswell, and two albums from
his flagship Spacetime Continuum project has firmly established Jonah as an
internationally respected icon in the global electronic underground.
On Emit Ecaps, the third STC album, he moves away from the ambient domain
into a more danceable yet still heady and experimental techno vein of
sideward beats, angled melodies, intelligent jungle breaks and some kind of
future jazz. STC's characteristic mutating, chiming melodic sensibility is
retained but put through a blender of styles similar to Black Dog
Productions' experiments with various electronic dance music avenues. The
album's key track and first single, "Kairo" is probably America's first
techno-jazz fusion 'drum & bass' track; a video by noted computer-animation
artist, Conor Patterson, will accompany the track.
Emit Ecaps will also be available in a deluxe, specially packaged edition,
designed by Deep Spacetime, Inc., a San Francisco-based holographic clothing
and design company. Described by Deep Spacetime's founder, Richard Sharpe as
a 'mental holographic vinyl, see-through neon pink silk screened pouch, held
together with a hand-stitched flap,' this package will be limited
commercially to 500 copies - a true collector's item available January 23,
1996.
Spacetime Continuum will be playing live all throughout the United States
beginning in March 1996.
* Drain - "Popular Rhythms With Regional Action" 12" EP (ASW 6177)
* Release Date: Late February 1996
Drain, a side project of Butthole Surfers' percussionist King Coffey, made
its debut in 1992 on King's own Trance Syndicate label. Long gone are the
debut's noisy guitars, aggro-screaming vocals and two other members, replaced
by a collection of exotic instruments, effects units, drum machines, and
samplers - all produced, sequenced, and engineered by King alone.
Through the years, King Coffey has collected volumes of dub, industrial,
hip-hop, jazz, non-European folk music and Western classical music
recordings. Filter those sounds with the assorted and distorted experience
of being the percussionist for the Butthole Surfers and you get "Popular
Rhythms With Regional Action," a six track
-more-
vinyl-only crash course in modern ethnomusicology and underground dance
music culture. Intentionally eclectic, yet groovin' enough for the most
discriminating musical explorers of all genres - think 'gamelan trip-hop'
with a Buttholes flavored twist.
Due in late February 1996, "Popular Rhythms..." previews four tracks from
Drain's forthcoming Trance Syndicate LP, Offspeed & In There, plus two
exclusive unreleased tracks.
* Husikesque - Green Blue Fire CD/CS (ASW 6149)
* Release Date: 2/27/96
Husikesque exhibits another side of noted songwriter Lida Husik. She
recorded this album in York, England with prominent experimental techno
producers Beaumont Hannant and Richard Brown (aka Outcast Productions). Lida
wrote the melodies and lyrics to all the songs (except "Dead Radio") with
Hannant and Brown engineering and programming the sounds and beats. This
album follows the Evening At The Grange EP which Astralwerks released in
November of '94. Green Blue Fire travels down a trip-hop path with restful
atmospheric stops. There will be a video for the song "Just Like Candy".
* Chemical Brothers - "Loops Of Fury" EP 12"/CD5" (ASW 6174)
* Release Date: Early February 1996
Hot on the heels of their successful first U.S. tour and second single "Life
Is Sweet" (featuring Tim Burgess of the Charlatans UK), comes this follow-up
to the Chemical Brothers' explosive debut album, Exit Planet Dust. The
"Loops Of Fury" EP is the Chemicals' return to the underground and a sneak
peek at what the duo has hidden in their bag of breaks and beats for the
sequel to ...Planet Dust.. It features three all-new, acid-laden, psychotic,
cut n' scratch hip-hop hotties and a remix of the quintessential Chemical
Brothers anthem, "Chemical Beats," (by UK producer/remixer of-the-moment
Dave Clarke (of "Red" series and Magnetic North fame).