macro welcomes arthur clees

with alluvium, stefan goldmann explores new structural paths for machine rhythm in irregular metres

stefan goldmanns new ep on this 10 inch masterpiece

new album by berlin trio kuf

new lp by stefan goldman

7 inch incl mp3

round three of the trilogy!

part 1 of a 3 part installment

the second album from italian ambient trio pcm. limited pressing on translucent orange vinyl, download code included.

outstanding soundscapes in philharmonie berlin!

incl cd!

fulminant alvum by kuf ! incl. stefan goldmann, raudive, peter kruder..

next stefan goldmann sureshot !

an ardent heart is a focused techno mini album that brings forward stefan goldmann’s most dancefloor-centered material in a decade. the tracks push and pull relentlessly. despite their linear appeal, there is an intricately balanced interplay between the heavy-handed kicks, the bouncy bass accents and the sizzling, yet clear-cut details whipped up by the rallying drums. the peculiar, seemingly “vocalised” mode of synthesis is maybe the most unifying sonic characteristic of the six tracks and one coda. formant shaping, vowel filters and airstream perturbations let a wide range of sounding elements speak in the tongues of a cybernetic babylon. layered polymetric patterns perforate the aural plane with alien scripts. clearly structured, yet opaque messages that seem to have traveled for aeons emanate from the red-hot circuitry. they spill into a network of delays, channeled down into labyrinthine corridors, enveloped in electrostatic noise. most tracks build on chance patterns evoked with hardware sequencers and freeform modulation sources. the resulting synthetic systems are as cohesive as they exhibit vast internal variation and range. thus balancing simplicity and complexity right in the middle, the results are just as immediately gripping as they can feed sustained attention. a wide palette of distortion and overtones mark the contours of individual elements that seem to have near-physical qualities – as if there were metallic strings, thick membranes, a resonating sphere, all struck by electric mallets, caused to vibrate by mechanical bows and sung by silicone lips.

kuf create emotion-laden dialogues across layers of time and dimensions of sound. voices recorded in private are chopped up and brought out center-stage to sing with beats hammered out right here and now. glowing synths push forward. basslines rise to grab the melodic role of a track while a vowel is truncated and locked into a grid, driving the rhythm. voices move within the frame of a sample, performed by hands pushing keys, guided by the ear, immersed in a trio sessions deep flow… a vortex of quirky hands, responsive ears and glowing circuits. since thomas a. edison first recorded the human voice in 1877, the recording arts have changed music forever. musicians have explored the endless possibilities of bouncing their input onto layers of tape, off the walls of an echo chamber or the circuitry of electronic helpers - technology that modulates, spatializes, shifts, divides or multiplies the work of human hands and mouths. an era of sampling offered a cubistic analysis of the recorded past and djs took dancers onto intricately fractured time travels. this is the historic foundation that kuf keep probing.

anno stamm is the revered 4/4 branch name of berlin’s lars stoewe. as anstam he has been at the forefront of dark beat science, touring extensively with the likes of moderat and thom yorke’s atoms for peace and has appeared at festivals ranging from mutek and ctm to sonar and dimensions. ‘annothek’ is his second ep for macro. the three tracks build on the same set of sound sources and offer three different views at their glowing core. elastic basslines pierce through a bed of sweet and warm chords, surrounded by sizzling noise percussion. definitely on the more introspective side, the three cuts offer a special emotional depth while maintaining a bit more than just enough oomph to get the action going. late night and early morning are the possible settings. it’s a declaration of tender love that comes with a gentle push towards the closest darkroom.

written & produced by roboknob. mixed by stefan goldmann. mastered by rashad becker. info: weve said it before: technos vanguard can be found in the east right now. sofias quirky techno underground is densifying. evolving around the diviat slon parties (residents: stefak & stefan goldmann), the beton nights, the indoors offspins of artmospheric festival and unannounced appearances of kink under his cyrillic guise, raw and rave-infused techno is increasingly defining the citys sound of the small hours. roboknob are part of this movement, and this is their debut ep. a live hardware duo, yasen and stanislav drop rugged, noisy machine jams around the bulgarian capital and have been regulars at artmospheric. the ep’s tracks have been distilled from their live repertoire and mixed by stefan goldmann into sharply defined form with added bite.dexydi is greek for acid - the corrosive liquid, not the music. accordingly, its heavy-handed single-note bass attack will cut through anything.spellbind is more bouncy with frantic upward movements, distorted percussive fallout and a seasick bass foundation. liulka handles two layers of time rubbing off of each other: quirky and pushing high in the sky, against the bass drum mechanics down low. a suitable acoustic symbol for sofias state of techno.

between the vast flatlands of western ukraine and the pacific shores of vladivostok, a new quirky techno underground has been racking up hefty grid rhythms below the radar. initially free from the weekend routines of the established club circuit, producers from etapp kyle to stanislav tolkachev have been experimenting with the possibilities of shifting grids in their post-socialist bedroom studios.

between the vast flatlands of western ukraine and the pacific shores of vladivostok, a new quirky techno underground has been racking up hefty grid rhythms below the radar. initially free from the weekend routines of the established club circuit, producers from etapp kyle to stanislav tolkachev have been experimenting with the possibilities of shifting grids in their post-socialist bedroom studios.

tough techno versions, derived from stefan goldmanns synth-heavy a1 film soundtrack. five cuts remixed into the mighty 4/4 grid (mostly). free wheeling hardware synthesis and heavy-handed beats line up for concrete-blasting impact on constructor and a-drive. the b2s spikes is a more loose affair around a scintillating analogue synth riff. contrastingly, inward slope features a warped beat layout and wavetable splashes, sounding like a weeping robot fighting with a cat. roadside lot is a soothing ambient fm tech tool. thats it. on to the next fifty.

literary all the granny smith apple trees grown today, from uruguay to hokaido, are clones from mrs. smith’s original tree in sydney. bananas, oranges, watermelons, garlic & other fruits of daily delight are routinely replicated without any input of external ideas - i.e., they are cloned. there is no general ethical or aesthetic decision to be formed about clones, since you have already imbibed them ever since your first bite. thus, you are not in a neutral or otherwise preliminary position, but already involved, kneedeep.

nice price deal !!! his >sleepy hollow< on innervisions is regarded as the anthem of 2006, gaining respect from all over the place. this year stefan goldmann is back with his own label macro and the next level of post-minimal modernism: >aurora< and >beluga<. both already are a central part in the sets of richie hawtin, Âme, luciano, damian lazarus, loco dice, steve bug, peter kruder and the lucky few who already have it on cdr. stefan has released through high profile labels like innervisions, perlon, ovum and classic. he recently also became one of europe s most in demand remixers with highly acclaimed reworks for blackjoy, marc romboy, it and … coming up soon: dj gregory. so, macro is destined to be a premier platform for both, stefan s genre-bending outings and the utmost in quality by likeminded artists. what a start

nice price deal !!! macro has been the home for the albums of some of electronic music’s most exciting live acts. so when a live band enters this context, it should better enter with a bang. kuf do just this with their album debut. the three-piece outfit with keys, bass and drums cooks up a sound that is as warm, cozy and exciting as it is utterly alien. the rhythm section hints at the great history of dirty funk and bouncing r’n b, but the grooves are firmly of today: dance-centered, thrillingly interactive and broken up at the best possible joints. the bewildering thing about kuf is that it is a vocal-led group that has no singer on stage at all. all vocal elements are based on self-recorded samples which keyboard whizz kid tom schneider melds and bends and squeezes in real time. as if it was the most natural thing to do. with no artificial synchronization in place, valentin link on bass and hendrik havekost on drums push the disembodied voices into an arena of hyperintegrated realtime magic of rough soul, intertwined by improvised outbursts and shaped with the aesthetics of raw mpc-based cut up techno.

on the back of an acclaimed lp on his own umhs label, freerotation resident leif takes his woozy grooves and lush atmospherics for a trackier spin on galdoors. macro beat s-broken latin groove propels the a1 through layers of bubbling dub synths and twinkling atmospherics. moment beat shares the first track s club focus, but this time chimes unfurl over a low-slung groove that leaves things perfectly poised for a change in direction. on the b, tumbler-picks up the pace once more with highs and arpeggios that pulse and slide around each other restlessly, before untitled wraps up with a beatless and beautiful flourish.

macro has been the home for the albums of some of electronic musics most exciting live acts. so when you are a live band and you enter this context, youd better enter with a bang. kuf do just this with their debut ep for the label.

oh, the terror. lestasi delloro delves deeper into new yorks gritty shades of techno. returning after 2014s super-bold iscariotic lips, this new ep for macro enforces his signature clashing of disparate ends within the same, driving beat. the a sides pyrrhic mundi is endless drama, stages after stages towards eliminating mind/body separation. the b side holds percussive structure rubbed against edgy metallic sound first with every light is blue, and then unfolds into ultimate basement club action in sky unknown. heavy low end maintained throughout.

macro proudly welcomes rroxymore to its stellar roster of artists. rroxymore has turned heads with her outstanding dj sets and no-prisoners-taken live act. her recent collaboration with oni ayhun, paula temple and planningtorock as recon decon 1 on noise manifesto promised a great future, and that promise is kept in tautologies. from the techno drive of darksun to the housed-out oddities of q19 and dff: this is as fresh as it gets.

techno exists in a distorted field. what is wrong elsewhere is right here. what shouldnt work works. awake at night and asleep by day. rough is beautiful, slick is rotten. with macro, things are always a bit more wrong than usual. and thats how they also end up being a bit more beautiful than usual. stefan goldmanns fossil water: fender bass tones weave a pad, from the thumping bottom up to the silky top, congregating into intense moments of dance floor bliss. the b-side throws us in at the deep end, with the tense yet laid back workout of nephelin, tipping over into the sheer techno claustrophobia of de-gauss. dark and warm like a stockholm syndrome: feeling cozy while the horror comes upon you.

macro has released albums by two of technos greatest live acts, kink and elektro guzzi. it would have been a shame if the two didnt exchange their special skills on each others killer material. and thats just what they did: kink remixed atlas into a tranced-out, peaktime world-domination slammer of pure euphoria. elektro guzzi let the snares smack and the pads build up on vodolaz into nirvana. dream team double pack: nothing better to let the sun shine through the summer of 2015. even at night.

industry sheds all personalized effort and tests how far you can get by using presets only. all sounds are factory presets of 3 obsolete 1990s japanese workstation synths, all effects are presets, all notes are quantized and most panning is purely accidental (laid out in the preset sounds). industry doesnt rely on successful presets, but on failed sounds of now obsolete synthesizers - industrial assumptions of where culture will go, but where it chose not to. the result is a surprisingly pleasant listening experience with effortless grooves and rich textures - and mildly demonic connotations. from smooth to kicking - a conveyor belt enjoying mood swings. as beautiful as the scheduled meeting of a pvc sheet and a thermoform mould on a workbench.

anno stamm is the revered 4/4 branch name of berlins lars stoewe. as anstam he has been a central project in the 50weapons stable, touring extensively with modeselektor / moderat and thom yorkes atoms for peace.

live techno-tanzband trio elektro guzzi are set to release their new studio album observatory via berlin based record label macro. from their 2010 s/t debut album and 2011 follow up parquet (hypnotic, near kosmische reverberations - clash) elektro guzzi have taken their man machine live show of bass, guitar, drums around the world, from landmark clubs like fabric and berghain to major festivals roskilde, sonar and mutek.

kink spent years of backwards-engineering the sounds of detroit, chicago and early warp. tweaking whatever software was available, he learned all the sideways possibilities of hacking into the sonics of analog classics with the beauty of digital degradation: alias noise, bit crush, noisy fft grains - his one-of-a-kind results electrified dance floors all over the world ever since. now, all the elements of kinks live sets have been bundled like a laser beam in his debut album

a beat and a bassline: if you have a sweet tooth for what makes the world of dance music go round, stefan goldmann nails it four times in 4x4inch for you.+

written & produced by christopher ernst,mixed by stefan goldmann new yorks l estasi dell oro has become quite a phenomenon on the vinyl underground through his releases for voodoo down & his own flaneur audio imprint. the principles of what exactly makes his tracks pretty irresistible are brought to ultimate focus in iscariotic lips / reverse & repair: multiple layers of noisy bits, shuffling time signatures around until you lose all orientation. 5 over 4 over 3 bend your mind in several directions all at once

marc antonas dissonant imprint has become synonymous, over the course of just fifteen releases, with the very best of depth defying tech grooves. tense atmospheres and floor grinding rhythms are at the forefront of the label’s releases and are again the dominant sounds on the latest release from label debutant, santos.

raudive a.k.a. oliver ho heads home with two guilty dancefloor pleasures. gritty surface, smoove bottom. for those damp, dimly lit cellar clubs: low ceilings, fog, smoke and all that.ruins runs a relentless groove against angular guitar overtones, blowing out the valves of its amplifier. metal sheets, rusty strings, sweaty bodies. visitor is built on a naughty percussion sequence and is elevated by a morphed girls inquiring voice straight out of a 1984 shibuya version of blade runner.

it is a double vinyl set of empty locked grooves that contains nothing but its very own surface noise - and physical structure. it is a sculptural revision of stefan goldmanns earlier locked groove-based double vinyl the grand hemiola, but it also serves as a genuine hauntological vinyl surface noise tool kit, out on its own. pulling a knife or other tool to its grooves allows for cutting your literally uniquely own beats directly into the record.

if the parquet album saw them delivering a unified vision of dancefloor purity to massive acclaim, cashmere now takes elektro guzzis signature man-machine sound up a notch!

kampong pressure - cover artwork incl. 20 page booklet w/ exclusive photos by dimitar variysky

stefan goldmanns adem finally brings a new concept of handling melodies to the world of house and techno. pushy synths tuned to arabian intervals, playfully pitch bent around one repeated note that sticks to the kick as if its life depends on it. its as if a parallel universes acid has been invented in some lunatic asylum in tirana. this primitive melody is as alienatingly synthetic as it is offensively brain-dissolving. in the hands of a dj, adem” is like the captagon formula in the hands of the bulgarian secret service: many deaths, big bucks. chalga, tallava, manele - call it anything. the b-side’s rigid chain is as detuned, yet strictly limited to a rogue off-beat bassline pumping in between metallic house drums. thats it.

>xenomorph / vespertilio< follows up peter kruders >law of return< track, that was a highlight, both in the music world in 2009 and in macros ever brilliant catalogue - and one of the now most sought after recent vinyl collectors records. xenomorph takes off where law of return ended. 2012 couldnt start deeper: detail rich, dreamy, pushing enthusiastically forward into the new year. vespertilio then moves between the off-centre sound aesthetics of a morricone soundtrack and the intensity of hypermodern subbass droppings. this is an irresistably deep double package, exceeding even the boldest expectations. a masterpiece. no more, no less.

produced by elektro guzzi and patrick pulsinger recorded directly to analog tape. no edits. no overdubs.
elektro guzzi redefined the meaning of performing techno live. with just guitar, bass and drums, they take the most unusual playing techniques and put them together into a rigid mechanical form where everything makes instant, evident sense. if they had not performed live extensively, becoming audience favourites from mutek to sónar and from berghain to fabric, it would have been hard to believe this is really how the music is created. that said, it seemed impossible they could go even further in this direction. yet thats exactly what they did. parquet, their second studio album sees them in monomaniacal, claustrophobic techno mode. throughout the nine tracks the distinctions between instruments and roles are totally vaporized.

macro greets rhythmic expressionism: stefan goldmann’s “the grand hemiola” is the first real innovation in the vinyl format in years! 144 locked grooves build a toolkit that breaks out of the limitation of one 4/4 cycle and brings unique possiblities to create complex polyrhythms just with two decks and a mixer. stefan goldmann’s first ever double vinyl album is a take on the infinite possibilities of rhythmic layering. percussion-heavy, focussed on clashing metres, deeply exploring the sound set – from the orchestral “grand hemiola”, to the triplet-feel of “megi’s waltz”, from the 11/8 pattern of “double hendecagon” to the anti-loops of “away from the flock”: a unique, non-conformist album of haunted acoustics, haptic percussion and deep rhythmic expression. a true, first time invention comes on two sides of the vinyl set: “the grand hemiola” loop toolkit overcomes the time restriction of locked grooves: one record contains loops in 4/4, the other in 3/4 (employing the time differences of the rotation rates 33 and 45 rpm). in the mix, they sum up to an extended cycle of 3x 4/4 or 4x 3/4 and enable building complex “3 over 4” polyrhythms (“hemiolas”). you can mix loop into loop for hours without ever getting trapped. more than an album, this is a note: pitch down side d to approx. -1.5 to match the loops’ bpm rate on sides b & d

man/machine: since their self titled debut album, vienna’s elektro guzzi made an impact on the scene no one could have imagined. being the first ever real techno live band, they took the scene by storm with their unparalleled stage appeal and future-forward sound. rocking clubs like berghain and fabric as well as numerous festivals (including sónar, time warp, spring 10, ade and mutek), it was the headstart of 2010. playing constantly live at countless gigs, plus live and studio appearances with patrick pulsinger and stefan goldmann, elektro guzzi’s music was set on fast forward evolution mode. “extrakt ep” captures the latest state of elektro guzzi’s incredible live sound, recorded in london with the outstanding capabilities of brendon ‘octave’ harding, the trusted engineer of dub legend lee ‘scratch’ perry, and mixed by mega-producer patrick pulsinger. the four cuts capture elektro guzzi’s raw side, turning out dark sexy grooves with an almost indie edge - probably their most danceable and dj friendly studio material to date - specifically produced for the vinyl format

do you remember why you started going out in the first place? if not, the maze will remind you with the largest feedback overdose since jimi and miles devastated the isle of wight. recorded in one take in an all-analog set up, stefan hooked up drum machines, distorition pedals and a theremin-controlled fuzz box for the ultimate screaming machine jam. now spanning two sides of a 12inch.

man/machine: viennas elektro guzzi challenge the meaning of live in electronic music. bored of laptop sets? with a classic setup of guitar, bass and drums elektro guzzi quantize themselves to an unheard level of discipline, tightness and danceability. no computers, no pre-recorded loops, no solos. probably the first time techno is really played live. as sequential as they may sound, they couldnt be more analogue. but however traditional they may look as a band, they certainly do not sound like one. the quest for the ultimate live presentation of techno has come to an end.

with 2009s magnificiently deep >cone ep< raudive aka oliver ho became an integral part of the ever brilliant macro family. the man is in there for a reason. now he drops one of macros most dancefloor-centered, yet distinctively future forward outings so far. >paper< - the chord, the bass, the strings! all deepness ingredients are there and it would be just classic if it wasnt raudive in control, whose chord is rather acoustic than synthetic, whose strings are rather xenakis than detroit - and whose bassline is just pumping genius blasting any reference system. but its a double pack of excessive excellence. >brittle< is papers evil sister and a giant step in groove design, throwing the thrills of the unknown right at your dancefloor. its repetitious, maniacal vexation patterns put any record to shame that has ever been called hypnotic. 2010 is right here. the ep is rounded off with the shimmering >sienna< - a no-beat melodic variaton set against the warmth of grainy crackle. one of the most thrilling releases by one of the most thrilling labels