REX ILUSIVII レコード& CD

Review: The painfully prolific Versatile label, out of France, returns with an uber-special compilation of Selected Works from Rex Ilusivii, a sound composer by the name of Mitar Suboti? who was responsible for pushing the boundaries of house and techno further and further as the 80s progressed into the 90s. This material is truly special and, of course, it is not available in any other format or on any other label; tunes like "Forced March", an off-kilter percussion dance, or even the lop-sided ambient and drone of "Plavobradi" and "Veliki Prekor" provide freshness and diversity to house and techno sets worldwide. They have been constructed by a producer who has been in the shadows of the elite for the last 30+ years. Highly recommended!

Review: Dusseldorf imprint Offen Music present posthumous works unveiled by Serbian legend Rex Ilusivii aka Mitar Subotic, who passed away tragically in 1999 when his Sao Paulo, Brazil studio caught fire. As the label themselves best put it: "To this day Rex Ilusivii remains an enigma of the global music culture, caught between late cold war electronic spheres, classic and the power of found sound." These seven unearthed excursions run the gamut from dark industrial and creepy imaginary soundtracks to bizarro cosmic synth oddities. Highly recommended listening.

Review: If you are lucky enough to have visited Dusseldorf club Salon Des Amateurs, you may be familiar with one of its residents, the cultish Serbian DJ Vladimir Ivkovic whose daring sets are inspiration to another of the venue's stars in Lena Willikens. Often Music is Ivkovic's new label and their first release shines a light on the unreleased archives of pioneering Serbian electronic artist Rex Ilusivii, real name Mitar Suboti?. The Serbian artist sadly passed away in a studio fire in 1999 leaving behind a vast number of unreleased works recorded over a decade from 1980 onwards. Six of those rescued tracks feature on this double 12" release In The Moon Cage (side 4 houses an etched illustration) and the more daring selectors out there will find them quite inspirational.

Review: Versatile's new Uprooted project, masterminded by serial curator and long-time label contributor Vidal Benjamin, has an intriguing concept. It focuses on the 'duality' of musicians who grow up in one place, then move to another and absorb that culture. The two tracks on release number one were picked by Vladimir Ikovic, who has selected a track a piece from Belgrade, the city of his birth, and Dusseldorf, his current home. On the Serbian side, he offers up 'Track 1' by Rex Ilusivii, Goran Vejvoda and Milan Mladenovic, a trippy, slow-motion slab of dubbed-out, Eno-influenced slab of post-punk experimentalism from 1984. Flip for some rough, powerful, mind-mangling proto-techno from 1981: the stylish, lo-fi and pleasingly intense 'NBKE' by CHBB. Inspired obscurities that are well worth a listen.