50Weapons Germany レコード& CD

Review: Stepping up with his second album for 50 Weapons, Addison Groove is once again mining the rhythmic excitement of juke and footwork and working it into his blue-hued melodic headspace. Standout vocal cut '"Just You" is a prime example of the upbeat flavour across the album, while "11th" matches the plush harmonies with moodier switch-ups, and "The Spirit Level" drops the tempo into a house bump that lends itself to the illustrious synth sweeps. Typically though the beats are in that twitchy middle ground between dubstep and footwork, leaving plenty of space for razor-sharp constructions and dazzling edits as best demonstrated on the dynamic acid roll of "Space Apples". Chaos abounds on the B Side where Developer's frantic side is shown via "Promiscuous" whilst the tightly wound "Pulstar" is quite hypnotic.

Review: 50 Weapons indulge Tony Williams's expansive take on current dance culture as Addison Groove. Put simply, Transistor Rhythm looks gorgeous, with design heavily indebted to Williams' clear passion for the Roland 808. Musically Transistor Rhythm explores the same areas of crisp, finely sculpted rhythms that have graced Swamp 81 and 3024 in recent times, with the smart sample usage on tracks such as "Night To Remember" complemented by a clutch of guest spots. Naeem Spank Rock features twice and instantly reminds you how good his voice sounds over a club beat, whilst there's also a battle beat with Mark Pritchard in the shape of "Dance Of The Woman".

Review: Under his Anstam guise, Lars Stoewe seems to specialize in the sort of moody, hard-to-pigeonhole fare that flits in the crawl space between murky IDM, experimental dubstep and nightmarish ambience. Stones and Woods, his second album, builds on the formula first explored on his 2011 debut, Dispel Dances. Typically, it refuses to sit still, showcasing a trademark style that often puts clandestine atmospherics above rhythmic naval-gazing. Ironically, it's when he melds the two - such as on the distorted live drums and odd noises of "Me & Them", or high-speed "Handsome Dances The Dance" - that Stones and Woods really hits home.

Review: This surprise debut album from German mystery men Anstam should be a cause for celebration. Having first made waves between 2007 and 2009 with a trio of bleak 12" singles that pitted contemporary grime and dubstep rhythms against classic and contemporary techno sounds, the fiercely secretive duo have released very little since. Dispel Dances continues that fruitful exploration of bass music's past and present, sneaking in Detroitian tech-jazz ("To All The Voices", "Handsome Talks The Talk") and hectic, next-level dubstep-jazz ("In The Bell Run") amidst the dubwise rhythms, basement atmospheres and smoky Berlin textures. The results are every bit as impressive as you'd expect.

Review: Parisian producer Bambounou has long been part of the 50 Weapons family, having offered up a series of well-received singles and a debut album for the label since 2012. Centrum is his second LP, and sees him in a typically inventive mood, offering up a range of techno tracks blessed with curiously off-kilter rhythms, crackly found sounds, tumbling melodies and jumpy electronics. While there are dancefloor moments - see the Detroit-influenced, outer-space grooves of "Fire Woman", spiraling psychedelia of "S.A.C" and the kickdrum-propelled thump of "Excluding Natalia" - many of the more potent moments are far more influenced by IDM and ambient.

Review: Across releases for Sound Pellegrino, ClekClekBoom and Youngunz, Bambounou has shown himself to be one of France's brightest new talents in the crossover world between techno and bass music - his debut album for Modeselektor's 50 Weapons stable has been keenly anticipated, and thankfully, it doesn't put a foot wrong. As well combining the raw bass physicality of producers like Objekt and Digital Mystikz in tracks like "Any Other Service" and "Capsule Process", the broken techno rhythms of producers like Shed in "Data" and "Splaz", the bright UKF hybrid styles of DVA and Champion and footwork inspired sampling on "Mass" and "Let Me Get", Orbiting offers a uniquely French take on bass, with "Great Escape" and "Challenger" even giving the palette of 90s French touch a contemporary spin. Easily the best 50 Weapons album this year, which in a year that has seen Shed and Addison Groove provide long players for the imprint is no mean feat.

Review: It's fitting that Benjamin Damage is the last artist to release an album on 50 Weapons. Apart from owners Modeselektor, he was also one of the first to feature on the label. Obsidian sees Damage straddle a fine line between the melodic and the atmospheric, the dance floor-heavy and the visceral. This is audible on the title track, where spacey chords are introduced over a rolling rhythm and on "Monolith", an arrangement that sees Damage fuse tribal beats with fragile, angelic hooks. Even though much of the album revolves around this interplay, there are also moments when the balance tips in the favour of the esoteric, and the lithe break beats and sensuous ambience of "Pulse Width" and "Shimmer" bring an end to Damage's relationship with the label in fine, introspective style.

Review: The inhabitants of Swansea have a lot to shout about these days. Not only is their football team riding high in the Premier League, but the city also boasts the originators of a sound dubbed "deep rave" - a suitably warm, muted fusion of old skool rave influences, deep house, UK funky, tropical and murky Berlin techno. Here, said pioneers - hometown heroes Benjamin Damage and Doc Daneeka - deliver their debut album for the mighty 50 Weapons imprint. They Live! is a suitably deep and lovable collection of bass music given their distinctive twist, with extra warmth provided by vocalist Abigail Wyles. Deeper, headphone-friendly moments ("Halo", "Juggernaut", "Battleships") are offset by a string of robust, peaktime bombs, not least a fine version of scene anthem "Creeper" and the eye-popping "Deaf Siren".

Review: Having gate crashed the scene back in 2007 with an inspired release on Hessle Audio, Romanian producer Cosmic TRG has since become one of the most in-demand men in electronic music. His productions have already graced such hyped imprints as Rush Hour Direct Current, Naked Lunch, Immerse and Hemlock. Here, he pops up on 50 Weapons with a decidedly mature second album. Where his early material was bold, brash and bass-heavy, Gordial is a lot more considered and, dare we sat it, introspective. Built around glitchy rhythms and glacial melodies, it's a warm, atmospheric and tactile full-length that proudly wears its techno, IDM and ambient influences on its sleeve.

Review: After truly impressing with his swerve in sonic direction across some of our favourite labels this year in Hessle, Rush Hour and 50 Weapons, the excellent Cosmin TRG deemed to grace the latter imprint with this much awaited debut album. And for anyone who dipped into the Romanian's recent output, Simulat will delight on many levels. The opening dusty strains of "Amor Y Otros" sets the standard, cleverly layering sounds and thumping rhythms in a fashion that is expansive yet cohesive, even straying down some thrilling pitch shifted dynamics. Previous 50 Weapons single "Fizic" features and its hazy melodic treatment of chords and synths is an obvious highlight, but there's plenty more on offer. "Ritmat" seemingly succeeds in marrying the rough drum skeleton of dubstep with ascendant house rhythms whilst "Want You To Be" immerses your senses in a deep fog of crackling ethereality, embellished with haunting vocals and militant kicks. Brief moments of calm are interspersed with more familiar Cosmin TRG tackle on a twelve track album that might not contain the immediate gratification of A Universal Crush, instead its real charms reveal after repeat listens.

Review: "If you do not hear this" a distorted voice says at the start of Shed's third album, The Killer, before deploying a low bass frequency, "or that, you will not feel it". It's a statement of intent which is followed through with some of the heaviest material of the producer's career - whether it's the dense ambient of "STP3/The Killer", the tunnelling, waspish drone of "I Come By Night", or the screaming oscillations of "Day After". Despite being an album grounded by monolithic rave-era breakbeats, it's also an album of contemplative moments - the thermal current melodies of "Gas Up" and "The Praetorian" chief among them. The artwork says it all - this is an album made for the body, and our advice is to turn it up loud and let techno's greatest contemporary producer work his magic.

Review: Modeselektor's 50 Weapons Of Choice series offers a simple but devastating premise: great, floor-filling exclusives from themselves and some of their closest musical allies. Last year's first collection - featuring "weapons 1 to 9" - was mostly made up of remixed Modeselektor tackle and their own cheeky bootlegs. This time round, they've gathered together an impressive line-up of bass music talent. There's Falty DL, ripping up the dance in typical fashion with the retro-futurist garage rave-up "Large Flash". Cosmin TRG offers up two sparkling contributions, including a contemporary techno beast. And so it goes on, showcasing all manner of unfeasibly heavy, post-dubstep bass music bangers. If that's your bag, don't sleep.

Review: Something unexpected, rare and highly classy from the Berlin based technoid juggernaut that is Modeselektor. In 2006, a little known bootleg emerged featuring the vocals from 50 Cent's "Just A Little Bit", released under the name "50 Weapons", which subsequently got linked back to the 'Selektor boys. With the dust having settled, they've just dropped a whole new instalment of the series, featuring Siriusmo, Roska and Housemeister amongst others. Siriusmo's mix of "Untitled" is heavy glitch-step with some incredible double-time breakdowns, while Phon O's "Art & Cash" is just hands down stunning - a truly breathtaking mix of Baltimore drums, tribal drums and galloping Berlin synths. Headhunter and Shackleton keep things fairly minimal on their mixes - the former making "A New Error" into an icy dub-dream rhythm, while the latter's "Rusty Nails" goes even heavier on the frosty atmospherics for a full-on 6am vibe. It's a genre hopping collection, but there's absolutely no faulting the quality of any of these prize nuggets. All we can say is - use these weapons wisely.

Review: Prior to the 50 Weapons we all know and love today, the imprint was begun as a series of anonymous white labels which we later collected as part of a compilation. This latest collection gathers the best of the label's singles output from the past 12 months. Dark Sky, Benjamin Damage & Doc Daneeka and Cosmin TRG all represent - highlights include Phono's technoid UK garage killer "Abbey Road", Marcel Dettmann's prickly atonal techno bomb "Deluge", and Shed's "RQ-170", an experimental piece of 160BPM dubstep which sounds like Drexciyan explorers picking through the sandblasted remains of a dried up underwater city.

Review: Modeselektor's 50 Weapons imprint shifted focus a little last year, moving back to the dancefloor following 2012's obsession with artist albums. As part of their master plan, they released nine (count 'em) vinyl-only remix singles. Here, those tracks are collected together on CD for the first time, presented in nerd-friendly chronological order. The material - a woozy, late night blend of sparse post-dubstep grooves, heads-down techno (see the reworks from Truncate and Robert Hood), leftfield rhythms (Lee Gamble) and evocative, anthemic moments (shouts to Marcel Dettmann, DJ Friction and Legowelt) - offers depth and variety, with the tracklist offering a veritable who's who of cutting edge underground producers. For the heads, there's also a clutch of previously unreleased remixes, including Tale of Us's most unusual and underground work to date.