KARENN レコード& CD

Review: Long before Karen was a universally accepted epithet for entitled middle-class white woman, there was Karenn, an uncompromising techno duo who do artful things with menacing noise. Pariah and Blawan have been on and off making music together since first launching this project in 2011 but whenever they do, it's worth hearing. This one on Voam is another case in point: 'Feeling Horizontal' is a monstrous and ghoulish stomper with twisted vocal darkness, while 'Happy Birthday' is a more lithe and bouncy cut with rubbing low ends and zippy synth texture. 'From Hunk To Husk' carries on the brutalist approach with more intense voices, bass and drums, and 'When Lutes Were A Thing' is a brain-bogging mix of sludgy sounds, spangled percussion and metallic surfaces.

Review: Since re-launching their Karenn project last year after a six-year hiatus, Pariah and Blawan have delivered a string of formidably forthright releases, most notably collaborative debut album "Grapefruit Regret". Their latest is just as intense and mind-altering as you'd expect, though the synth sounds employed are far more spacey and sci-fi than we've come to expect. This is no bad thing, though; in fact, A-side "On Request" offers a perfectly pitched fusion of dense, ten-ton techno drums, tumbling electronic motifs and undulating deep space melodies. Flipside "Shoes Off" takes a similar sonic approach, wrapping malimba style synthesizer melodies and Aphex Twin-esque ambient chords around a fiendishly fast, all-action rhythm track.

Review: Back in April, Blawan and Pariah rebooted their hardware-based Karenn project after a five-year hiatus via a rugged EP on their freshly minted Voam imprint. Here the pair inaugurates a new series, Voam Club Archive, in which they'll offer up tracks recorded during live performances. For fans of raging, hard-wired club techno, there's much to enjoy, from the intoxicating, acid-fired stomp of "Berlin - Live Cut 1" and the redlined intensity of the dark and distorted "Berlin - Live Cut 2", to the Sheffield style bleep melodies, wild electronics and Lory D style grooves of "Rome - Live Cut 1". Arguably best of all, though, is the metallic, forthright insanity of closing track "Amsterdam - Live Cut 1".

Review: It's been a fair old while since we last heard any new material from Blawan and Pariah's hardware-based Karenn project. In fact, "Kind Of Green" is the duo's first collaborative release for almost five years. They start in suitably forthright, floor-friendly fashion via "Rek", a dense, full-throttle techno assault rich in buzzing, mind-altering motifs, before wrapping spacey sounds around metallic percussion hits on the noticeably deeper title track. Those looking for devilish intensity should check the dark and intoxicating "Salz", while closing cut "Newt" is a pleasingly sparse and out-there chunk of mid-tempo modular madness.

Review: Blawan and Pariah's Karenn project has remained very much a compelling fixture within the contemporary techno community largely off the back of their live hardware performances in clubs and festivals and a smattering of remixes. This has allowed the pair to gloss over the fact it's been some two years since we saw some original Karenn material, but you shouldn't fault artists for choosing to work at their own pace. This three track return, the sixth 12" issued on their own Works The Long Nights label, retains the trademark hardware-produced approach of previous Karenn material but does feel somewhat lighter and more playful in tone. No where is that more evident than the trumpeting synths that fluctuate with intensity throughout the barrelling abstract techno rhythms of "Nelly".

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.