PEDER MANNERFELT レコード& CD

Review: Peder Mannerfelt's live performance at Berlin Atonal 2015 featured an early '90s style virtual reality 3-D incarnation of the man himself, complete with mask (as seen on the cover) posing while his violent and psychotic analogue experiments powered away for nearly an hour. An excerpted edition of Mannerfelt's performance features here on the festival's rebooted label. On the A side, the sonar communications on "The Theory" feature, while the shocking grind and squeal of "Lines Describing A Circle" give a good audio snapshot of what the night sounded like. On the flip, "Limits To Growth" features bass powered half by drone pulsations, half by what sound like Gregorian chants, supporting laser zaps and cut up vocal loops. The jagged and angular groove "I Came" shares the same style of tongue-in-cheek weirdness as Diagonal's Powell, who played the same night.

Review: With close ties to Glasgow vinyl institution Rubadub, the Ultimate Hits label has been a welcome addition to the land of techno with a refreshing approach demonstrated in their small clutch of releases to date. Having secured the massive "Skanker" by Lighter on their debut split release, Ultimate Hits have since embraced the full artist 12" with last month's I'm Back single from Max McFerren now followed by this superb record by Peder Mannerfelt. With the Variation EP, Mannerfelt delivers four idiosyncratic productions that skirt the boundaries of techno and oddball synth noodling and are some of the Swede's best dancefloor material since his Subliminal Kid days.

Review: Scandinavian producer Peder Mannerfelt's 2014 debut, Lines Describing Circles, may have been impressive, but its spooky mixture of drone, ambient, and experimental electronics lacked focus. The same can't be said of The Swedish Congo Record, which sticks religiously to a surprising - but rather brilliant - concept. It's apparently an all synthesizer re-make of an obscure 1950s album of recordings of indigenous tribal music from the (then) Belgian Congo. With synthesizer notes being used to create both rhythm and melody, Mannerfelt's concoctions are bizarre but brilliant, and undoubtedly as intense and rhythmically dense as the album that inspired it.

Review: Formerly known as the Subliminal Kid and creating bizarre yet wonderful productions as Roll The Dice, Peder Mannerfelt steps forward under his own name to showcase a more abstract side to his personality. Hi debut LP for the illustrious Digitalis couldn't have come at a better time and his sedative mixture of noise, ambient and dub is a joy to both the eardrums and chest plate. It feels like ritualistic music found on unexplored terrains in deep space. Our favourites include the percolating sway of the title track, "Africate Consonants" and "Nihilist 87". Mastered by our main man, Pole and served in an edition of 500. No sleeping, please...

Review: "Shared Meanings" has been one of Mumdance's most ambitious and explorative projects to date; pulling together the four corners of the hardcore continuum and tying them in a tight bow, his mix has drawn elements and parallels between all genres and laced them in a narrative that mirrors and reflects throughout. Now, for limited time only, we have five of the 32 tracks he included in the mix ranging from his and Logos' totem track "Teachers" which pays homage to the UK's forefathers, to the pulverising thumpy bumpy techno of Nkisi's "Kinenga" via stasis sensation ambience from Space Afrika in the form of "After They Entered It Was Only Evident". Coordinates don't come much broader or deeper, "Shared Meanings" is Mumdance in full on explorer mode. Long may his meaningful trips continue.