Hi there and welcome to another installment of the Darkfloor Stalker. A nice start to 2012, from brain-flexing modular work-outs right through to crunchy hip-hop. Some new faces as ever, playlist + timings down the bottom of the page. You know the score.

Scanner – Souvenir
First up is Londoner Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner. Souvenir is a beautiful, pensive track, ambient keys contrast complex, synthesised drums. The arrangement knods heads at the likes of Steve Reich as phasing strings subtly build over the crunchy beats.

Robin’s journey began at the young age of 12, playing around with sounds on tape recorders. He then progressed to experiments with reel-to-reel machines, then synthesisers and computers.

These days Robin is kept busy. 2012 will see him touring with the Heritage Orchestra as a musical director for Live_Transmission, presenting a score for a ballet in Lille, France for l’Opera and his band Githead are releasing their 4th album coming out on Swim.

Be sure to check out past releases out on experimental labels Bine Music and Sub Rosa. Keep an eye out for an album coming out in February on the latter entitled ‘Colofon & Compendium‘. Robin tells me he is also collaborating on a new album with pianist Anni Hogan, featuring Jarboe among others. My ears are perked.

Head over to his site for more info.

Julien Mier – Sunken
Coming in next is Sunken by Julien Mier. Get out a pen and make note of this guy. Already booked to support Plaid and Funckarma this year, he’s someone we’ll be hearing a lot more of.

Sunken is super-swung, melodic electronica at its best. Beautiful warm synths, crip percussion and haunting atmospheres… As is clearly evident, Julien has a long-standing musical background, having played “a lot of instruments”, as he puts it modestly.

Roll on 2006, Julien meet sequencer, sequencer, this is Julien. What followed couldn’t have been more natural, Julien, finally able to realise his ideas, began recording, looping, cutting and pasting thousands of sound objects into a fragmented, melodic waterfall of sound.

He’s also a member of Night Shift, a futuristic, bass-driven collective founded by garage producer Inofaith. Some serious talent on there and a great place to check out new music. Set your bookmarks.

Check releases on Shipwrec and Lomechanik and keep eyes and ears out for more to come.

Boris Noiz – Untitled
Up next is a current favourite of mine.

Untitled is a pumping blend of African rhythms and broken, techno might. An aggressive fusion of bass styles and genres, destined for dystopia.

Boris Noiz has been making tracks and creating his own path of sonic destruction since 2003. He has put out releases on Bankai, Yellow Machines, Combat Recordings and EX7 and remixed renowned artists such as Scorn, Machine Code, Anodyne, Point B and Gunjack. Maybe you’ve heard of him.

Besides performing in numerous venues in his home country – Serbia and festivals such as ‘Exit’ for the last 3 years, he has also performed outside of Serbia in countries such as Russia, Greece, Croatia, Spain and Hungary. His tracks have received support from Surgeon, Rob Booth (Electronic Explorations), Scanone, Warlock & Noyeahno, Stormfield and many others.

Boris Noiz also runs Syndetic Recordings along with Dekode, DrumR and Molez. Its main aim is to promote diverse alternative electronic music with emphasis on bass – sound as tasty as it looks? You know it does!

Molez – Gift
I was delighted to be asked by the Acre Recordings crew to remix something off Molez’s upcoming EP. His tracks are always right at the top of my crates and have done plenty of damage on Berlin’s darkest floors.

Gift was the obvious candidate for me, stark beats, bleak soundscapes and thundering bass. Allghoi Khorkhoi, the second track on the EP is a deep, crunchy affair- atmospheric, distorted dub built on blocks of noise.

Molez is a student of Electronic Music and Media Arts in Hungary. He uses software such as Max/MSP, CSound, and AudioSculpt to create and develop his own patches and sounds – resulting in his own unique, hand-crafted style.

You can find more of his output on Syndetic, Dubkraft, Rottun, Digital Distortions, Acroplane and now Acre Recordings.

My remix sits alongside reworkings by C Mantle and Datacrashrobot (both of whom have been featured previously in these articles). No, its not as good as you’re imagining, its even better. Bottle up a construction site and then smash it against the wall, that’ll be close to C Mantle’s mind-blowing take. Datacrashrobot blazes out a wonked-out electroid version, tight chopping and slicing from one monster beat to the next.

The EP is out for free now. Head over to Acre Recordings for more info.

Dubh Thrian – Abandon All Hope
Next up is Leitrim-born Dubh Thrian. Adandon All Hope is a beautiful track. Waves of haunting ambience suck in and out of crunchy, granular beats and squelchy percussion. Its big and warm with a combination of dub influences, slices of noise and tight half-step beats. Lights off, headphones on full stuff.

‘For me the trick is to get to the stage where I’m not thinking about what I’m doing and then something interesting usually happens.’

Keep your eyes out for a new ep/live show soon, hoped to be ready for the spring. In the meantime, grab some great releases on Alkalinear Recordings.

Hidden Persuader – Funk Droid
Cheeky mix for a cheeky track. Hidden Persuader delivers a bouncy trip into machine-driven electro funk. Funk Droid literally oozes with groove- Its all about that bassline. Sharp, acid-infected goodness.

The Hidden Persuader has been producing funk-fueled electro for over 10 years. He’s based in Wales and has something of a reputation for demolishing dancefloors. His sound sources consist of circuit bent instruments, frequency feedback, loop and software manipulation and bass. Minced up, spat out and squashed into your ears.

He’s currently co-running Access Tonal Communications and releasing music with ATC, Bass 4 Bots and Shameless Toady.

Kid606 – Crudeworld
Kid606 is certainly no stranger to us over here at Darkfloor. His sound is sometimes playful, sometimes menacing – from bass driven lo-fi weapons to deep dubby numbers. Crudeworld somehow captures both these styles – its deep and dark with a heavy rolling bass.

‘Inspired by the best of electronica, punk, jungle, hiphop, bass, dancehall and techno, Kid606 fuses it all together with a love of pop culture that Andy Warhol would approve of.’

This one is out on his own Tigerbeat6 imprint with a handful of tasty remixes. Get to the shops!

Mad EP & Shadowhuntaz – In Living Stereo
Acroplane records seem to going from strength to strength of late. Taking up from their last devastating techno release by Deadsound & Videohead, now they bring us heavy calibre hip-hop in the form of Mad EP & Shadowhuntaz. Razor-edged beats, gut-churning bass and spitting lyrics.

Mad EP is Mathew Peters, an Iowa native who enjoys defying expectations as he skims through every imaginable genre. His music is made with computer, live instrumentation, found sounds and field recordings.

At eight years old Mathew began to learn cello, and at fourteen was already onto music theory, composition and improvisation. He studied cello performance at Northwestern University with the world-reknowned Hans Jorgen Jensen. While still an undergraduate, he did an internship at WFMT (Chicago’s fine arts and classical radio station) and became the youngest person to produce the Chicago Symphony Orchestra radio broadcasts in their history. After two seasons, he went on to study sound recording and digital media at McGill University in Montreal.

To say the guy is gifted is an understatement.

Check out ground-breaking EPs on Ad Noiseam and Hymen Records, jam-packed with guest appearances.

Shadow Huntaz are one of Skam’s finest signings. They were originally formed by a trio of MC’s, Breaff, Dream and Nongenetic, all of whom are based in different cities in the US, Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles respectively. For their first full-length release on Skam records, Corrupt Data, they were joined by brothers Don and Roel Funcken from The Netherlands, better known as Funckarma.

Mudlogger – The Rice Fields
And decending into modular chaos next as Mudlogger takes over. Originally from England, he currently works from a small village in East Thailand. His music is 100% eurorack modular setup, with no external sequencing, recorded in mono in one take to a laptop.

‘Having no presets, no BPM is very refreshing.’

Ear-splitting goodness. Mudlogger gives all of his music away for free. Head over to his SoundCloud and fill your speakers with his incredible journeys, tweeked from simple waveforms into mind-bending sonic structures.

MANASYt – Head Transplant
Jacking electro up next from Petar Tassev aka MANASYt, a Bulgarian producer with attitude by the tonne. Bass-driven breaks, sweeping industrial atmospheres and piercing synths dominate. Bursting with raw energy, the track is bursting with strange mechanical noises drenched in reverb, dissonant stabs and a wonky, shuffled electro beat.

With past releases on Touchin Bass, MNX and Bunker, he’s no stranger to the scene. Expect to be hearing a lot more from him this year. Label heads, you know what to do.

Petar also releases synth-driven electronica under Sam Lowry.

the Darkfloor Stalker
Download / Listen

00:00 Scanner – Souvenir
03:30 Julien Mier – Sunken
07:50 Boris Noiz – Untitled
12:03 Molez – Gift
15:28 Dubh Thrian – Abandon All Hope
19:47 The Hidden Persuader – Funk Droid
21:28 Kid606 – Crudeworld
23:20 Mad EP & Shadow Huntaz – In Living Stereo
27:12 Mudlogger – The Rice Fields
28:25 MANASYt – Head Transplant