na: musik krause

For those who pay attention to such things, it seems like Friday is always full of electronic new arrivals of note. That’s because it’s the day that the German digital distribution company FineTunes drops their new releases. Today, two releases on the same label caught my eye.

Robag Wruhme – The Lost Archive EP 1998 – 2007

Gabor Schablitzki is a hyperactive producer, working on his own as Robag Wruhme and along with Sören Bodner as the Wighnomy Brothers it seems like he has a new release every few months. But although Schablitzki is embraced by the minimal techno community, more often than not his releases tend to incorporate all sorts of different genres into the mix. The Lost Archive‘s “Bocksenluser,” for instance is almost a straight-up jungle track, evoking shades of a breakbeat laden past which is confirmed by the wilder, more Richard D. James era Aphex Twin-esque “Bakkenversper.” “Sputnikkschokk #2,” on the other hand, wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Warp in the mid-’90s alongside Plaid or Plone such are its IDM bona fides. There’s no doubt that this one is a cleaning out of the vaults for Schablitzki, but sometimes those sorts of things are fun to listen to. This is one of them.

Krause Duo – Ruggi Zuggi

The Musik Krause label from which these two releases come has always been known as a weird sort of outlier among the minimal scene — taking their lead from Robag’s common audio jokes — Krause Duo’s “Canopolis” is no exception. At first it’s little more than a drum beat and two quickly plucked bass notes. Over time, though, that structure begins to evolve, tweaking one sound to create an entirely different feel. There’s not much going on at all, but these subtle changes begin to feel like monumental shifts. Until about three minutes in, that is. That’s when the track hiccups, stalls, comes back to life and welcomes a sultry saxophone. This isn’t some sort of crossover track for non-techno fans – I can imagine Joe hating this, for example – but, I dunno, for a fan (read: apologist?) like me, it’s a treat.