BLAWAN レコード& CD

Review: The Cursory EP is the second collaboration between Italians in Berlin The Analogue Cops and UK bass producer Blawan. It's the debut release on a new label run by another Italian duo, Raw People, but what is more notable is that the release maps out new possibilities for that grey area where house, techno and bass meet. "Aurum", with its loose, organic drums, could be easily mistaken for a Workshop release were it not for the wired vocal sample and interplay between the spacey, ambient chords and the arrangement's cheese-wire percussive licks. "Illy" is straighter and more representative of the Analogue Cops' approach, with its filtered groove and insistent stabs underscored by firing percussion, but it sounds functional when played next to "Quarto". The standout cut on the EP is based on a driving but more offbeat rhythm, while viscous acid lines cosy up to crashing cymbals, creating a woozy, edgy feeling. Put simply, "Quatro" is the kind of track that captures lost moments from late nights without making the listener feel uncomfortable. Finally, "Sickle" sees the trio return to dance floor techno, but with a difference. Blawan's input ensures that the rolling rhythm is fluid and less regimented, while the rasping percussion that tracks the building chord is rougher than a Ryanair red-eye out of Berlin on a Monday morning.

Review: Horrorcore techno titan Blawan is back, making his XL debut under exclusive license from his own Ternesc imprint. A five-tracker of humorous, hellish heat, this new EP careens through only the most impish, wicked sounds. Lead piece 'Under Belly' hears back like an incubus toying with a conjured synthesizer, before a farting electrance breakdown ensues; the as yet unreleased bits 'Gosk' and 'Blika' are no less unnerving.

Review: You can always rely on Blawan to deliver the brutalist techno goods and that's exactly what he does here. This new double 12" on Ternesc opens with UK funky drums and wild percussive patterns as well as some signature mangled voices. There is also hyper speed industrial minimalism on 'The Sithe' that captures the sound of a factory in meltdown, spangled synths and eerie dub atmospheres on 'Silver' and unrelenting rave techno on 'Fizz City.' Add in two more hard to define fusions of mutant sound design, busted rhythms and dystopian moods and you have a spell binding EP indeed.

Review: Having devoted much time of late to the release of fresh material from his Karenn project with Pariah, this solo single from Jamie Roberts AKA Blawan is long overdue. Roberts opens with the thumping intensity of "40 Spiral", where cut-up, nightmarish vocal samples buzz around a ten-ton techno beat, before skipping his way through the loose-limbed, lof-fi techno-funk of "Immulsion (Come To Me In Full Electric Mix)". You'll find an alternate version of that track - the "That Kind Of Kink Mix"- at the end of the EP, and it's worth a listen thanks to a quirkier rhythm, stranger noises and discordant riffs. B-side opener "Rain", a kind of production-line clang-fest underpinned with formidably redlined beats, is also well worth a listen.

Review: After keeping his counsel for the best part of 12 months, Blawan follows up last year's decidedly robust and forthright "Wet Will Always Dry" album with another suitably searing, all-action EP. Title track and opener "Many Many Pings" adds wild, Aphex Twin style electronics to a driving, dense and deranged techno rhythm, before "Lox" delivers a similarly intense study in charcoal-coloured lo-fi techno insanity. "Gadget" sounds like a Surgeon record with razor-sharp claws - all thumping beats and scuzzy electronic loops - while "Hapexil Rotator" cleverly combines bittersweet and otherworldly electronic flourishes with another mind-mangling distorted techno drum track.

Review: Blawan's back: look out! The Communicat 1022 is on his own Ternesc imprint: its third release to date. The title track is testament to his modus operandi: hard as nails, all-modular stompers that somehow find the soul in the machines. The brooding and dystopian "Rubber Industry" shows more restraint but still grinds and scuffles away in fine vintage glory. On the flip "Lit Up Communicat" is atmospheric and faintly melodic amongst all the industrial metallic textures and tape hiss while "Marga" hammers the message home in peak time hypnotic fashion: the melody on this one sounds like a hammer dulcimer dragged through a delay, absolutely mental! He's come a long way since bangers like "Scarborough Harbour" and "Peaches", finding a seasoned maturity in his sound, but this shows he still has all the energy and devotion to his art and possibly more than ever.

Review: After flitting between labels for the first four years of his career, Blawan has decided to become master of his own destiny. Last month's Warm Tonal Touch EP marked the debut of his Ternesc imprint. This speedy follow-up continues on a similar theme, delivering a range of ragging, dark and often intense modular techno workouts. All four tracks prioritize percussion and rhythm, with any melodic elements - usually short, nightmarish loops, or horror-influenced textures - playing second fiddle to his impressive drum programming. It's a formula that works well, from the left-of-centre bounce of "Hanging Out With The Birds" and throbbing 4/4 pulse of "Mine Oh Mine", to the sludgy, industrial fuzziness of closer "Diatonic Valves".

Review: Warm Tonal Touch marks a new chapter in Jamie 'Blawan' Roberts career, as the producer launches his Ternesc label. Set to offer a home to most of his solo material, he kick-starts the imprint with a quartet of modular techno workouts. Undeniably rhythmic and floor-friendly throughout, there's a surprisingly tactile feel about the rolling grooves of "Talatone" and "Roll Mick", despite the presence of clanking, metallic percussion. Interestingly, it's when he tries to do things differently -such as on the intense, clicking grooves and dislocated horn samples of "Blue Bottle", or the intense, cacophonous, unsettling throb of "Fentanyl", that the EP really excels.

Review: ** REPRESS **Hessle Audio drop two tracks from the mysterious Blawan. Rumours are hinting that this could be a moniker for another producer but for the time being, but for now we'll have to settle for playing the guessing game. We wouldn't be surprised if this was a big name producer, with the title track wonderfully twisting cold, post-garage drums into jungalist syncopations. "Iddy" on the b-side, throws up an entirely different style of percussion - pointed metal on hollow toms gives the track a disjointed but totally danceable feel.

Review: It would be hard to tag Blawan's debut on Frozen Border affiliates Black Sun as anything other than four exercises in resolutely grubby, dark and industrial techno, so leave all your "post-whatever" classifications at the door. Lead track "Scarborough" demonstrates Blawan's noirish prowess for uncovering unnerving vocal samples and using the duration of the production to further bury this looped up element beneath the saturated crud of noise built up around the hollow scraping of kick drums that drives the track forth - see his recent YouTube burner "Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage" for further compelling evidence. It sets the slightly sinister tone for what follows with "Breathe Them Knees In" literally growling into life and scheming to blow the head off anyone not prepared for the huge waves of viscous pressure at its core. "Grafter Gets A Home" differs in that the malevolent vocal remains above the parapet of dystopian noise that bubbles underneath throughout its progression, while "6 To 6 Lick" sees Blawan let loose on the drums in schizophrenic fashion.

Review: Amidst all the rightfully celebrated contributions to the R&S revival from James Blake and Space Dimension Controller last year, the punishing dancefloor update of the label's sonic template from Hemlock boss Untold was sort of passed by. Hailing from Barnsley, Blawan becomes the latest rising talent to appear on the iconic Belgian imprint, and takes his cue from Jack Dunning, fully embracing the 303 sound that characterised the label in its pomp and delivering three thrilling tracks that further demonstrate the budding potential shown on his Hessle Audio debut. Lead track "Bohla" sets the tone, crafting a menacing rhythmic swing from a titular growl and smudged bass drums, with intermittent upwards swirls of 303 constantly building and dropping off. "Kaz" proves to be brilliantly schizophrenic in its approach, with intricate drum rhythms cascading around whilst acid lines twist in ten different directions across almost seven freakout-inducing minutes. What really impresses with Blawan is an innate talent for unique rhythms and it's most apparent on the abrasive delight of "Lavender", with rattling percussion covered in a thick viscous bassline truffle shuffle.

Review: As the title suggests, this 12" provides a second selection of cuts from Dynamic Reflection's recent five-piece box set, "Continuum". First into bat is Blawan, whose moody, foreboding and intense "The Narrowing" is a deliciously crackly, mind-altering slab of Halloween-friendly horror-techno. SHDW and Obscure Shape successfully join forces for the retro-futurist brilliance of track 2 "Zuruck Ins Licht" - think "Brown Album" era Orbital fused with mid-'90s James Ruskin fare - while Jeroen Search serves up some serious dancefloor hypnotism in the shape of EP highlight "Fundamental Force". To round up a fine EP of slamming peak-time techno, Stefan Vincent does his best Surgeon impression on "You Taught Me How To Hate".

Review: The fourth release on Works The Long Nights sees the return of Karenn, and the most substantial statement of Blawan and Pariah's growing prowess as a duo. Brandishing some six tracks of raw, growling techno spread across two hefty plates of vinyl, Sheworks 004 is as heavy to hold in your hands as the music is uncompromising on your ears. From the off, it's clear Karenn's music has been influenced by the creative constraints afforded by swapping software for hardware, and also Blawan and Pariah's growing relationship with Italian duo The Analogue Cops. The wonderfully grimly titled "Nicotine Window Netting" jostles for favour with its equally well named B Side accompaniment "A Room Full Of Fuck All" - the former dominated by the deranged acid line that jolts around unsettlingly atop the all too dense thud. The latter's drum textures have this strange purring sound and even weirder velveteen, skin crawling sensation and this doesn't even cover the onslaught of tunnelling deranged rave sirens that veer in and out of focus. The vicious "Clean It Up" demonstrates they can manipulate pretty straight forward, heads down yet still blunt techno, while "Lifesbleach" sees them dabbling in tape saturated electro.

Review: This been a tingle of anticipation at Juno towers ever since whispers first surfaced about a techno-leaning collaboration between R&S 2.0 alumni Blawan and Pariah. Save for a remix of West Norwood Cassette Library and an appearance on Ben UFO's excellent Rinse FM mix, this 12", the debut release on their newly minted Work The Long Nights imprint, constitutes the first serious glimpse into the Karenn sound. Title track "Chaste Down" is, for lack of a better word, enormous. It positively bristles with the kind of techno-funk groove that brings to mind the work of the Fachwerk crew at their finest, all twisted metallics, piercing synths and the beefiest of kick drums underpinning the whole thing. "Auflen Whip" and "Limewash (Barrelled)" make up the flipside, with the former's hollow, industrial slaps proving a boisterous accompaniment to the latter's pervading sense of rattling menace. How far will this duo take their sound down the rabbit hole? This may be one of 2012's most exciting questions.

Review: UK techno producer Blawan and Italian hardware aficionados The Analogue Cops have reunited as Parassela for a corporate culture-skewering new EP, HFFKEM (Hedge Fund Festivals Kill Electronic Music).

The four-track project will be released next month by Berlin-based label Overdraw, who describe the release as "an infuriated conglomerate of liquefied analogue leads, rotten oppressive drums and trenchant FM drubbings".

Review: March has kicked off with some stellar house and techno pieces, but a return from the Parassela crew has made this the best month in a long while. We'd been truly missing this collaborative project between The Analogue Cops and Blawan, three minds which together helped to truly instil a sound within the contemporary house and techno game over the last five years. If you're listening to raw, stripped-back house these days, it's down to projects such as Parassela; that post-2010 wave of goodness very much includes these guys in the list. They return for one of their inimitable faux white labels on the Cops' own mighty Restoration label, and it's clear that they crew had been missing each other's company as of late. "Track 1" is classic Parassela nastiness thanks to a dark, intricate mould of hardware beats and distorted melodies with that unmistakable, tape-kissed hiss, and "Track 2" delivers more of the same except that the groove is more minimal here. On the flip, "Track 3" injects more of a house-centric movement into the equation, while "Track 4" heads off into sparser, more desolate territories that remind us of just how multi-talented this group of producers are. Unmissable, really...

Review: The latest Parassela release is a real all-star hardware techno affair, as the usual gang of The Analogue Cops and Blawan are joined by the latter's Karenn partner Pariah for the opening track of the Home Alone EP, complete with Macauley Culkin-referencing artwork. With four such characters on the buttons A1 is expectedly big, with the Cops' usual vocal snippets chirping amongst the Karenn duo's booming kicks and squealing industrial textures. The remaining tracks are just as heavy even without Pariah's involvement; A2, climbs to a crescendo of analogue noise and breaks out into a twinkling, tunnelling groove, B1 provides a frenzy of abrasive analogue sequencing and B2 a combination of disembodied yet soulful vocals interacting with acid and '90s house tropes.

Review: News of Surgeon and Blawan working together as Trade for the fifth Works The Long Nights release was unexpected, though hardly surprising given how supportive the former has been of the latter and his fellow UK techno producers in recent times. Unsurprisingly given the calibre of the artists involved, the results pretty spectacular, even taking into account the fact the genre is in something of a purple patch at the moment. "Half Nelson" sees frazzled synths dragged kicking and screaming across savage kickdrums and incomprehensible vocals, while "Positive Neckline" pairs ripcord bass and relentless stabs stabs with frenetic hi-hats. On the flip, "Touch This Skin" dangles its rattling drums like a flayed man hanging from the gallows while "I Notice You All" combines acidic bass with a mechanical rhythm that nevertheless seems irregular in its makeup. While Surgeon's solo material has always hit hard, it's always been characterised by a cleaner sound, but with Blawan in tow things are as rough around the edges as the latter's Karenn material, and it's something very welcome indeed.