Daniel Buess is dead. My personal friend and musical collaborator disappeared on February 7 in his hometown of Basel, Switzerland in the early morning after a night of partying. After more than a month, an agonising period for his life partner, Eli, as well as for his friends and family, his body was found in the river Rhine on March 10. At the time of writing the circumstances of his death are still unclear and it remains to be seen if the results of an autopsy will shed light on the darkness surrounding his disappearance.
Daniel was an exceptional drummer, a master of intensification, and he employed his skills both in the context of ‘serious’ music as well as underground noise, from the Ensemble Phoenix, to 16-17, Buggatronic, Cortex, Mir and collaborations with musicians such as Knut Remond, Kasper T. Toeplitz, Zbigniew Karkowski and many others.
I was lucky enough to have played with him twice as Cortex, once at the Praxis 20 years party in Basel in 2012 and once, again in Basel, in 2014. Daniel also played at other Praxis label nights both in Basel and Berlin, solo as Cortex, most recently at the 2013 Datacide Thirteen release party and conference in Berlin.
Daniel appeared in the Praxis universe when he got involved with the 1999 release of 16-17 “Mechanophobia”, where his drumming was sampled and used for the beats. Around this time, fruitful collaborations with Alex Buess began, and one shape they took was the project named Cortex which eventually materialised on vinyl as Praxis 48 – “Vacuum Theory”. I had worked with Alex on numerous records and collaborations since the 80s and I was very happy to be able to release the record.
Since then there had been talk about putting out more material, and finally an LP with one side each by the two Buess’ was finalised and cut in early February 2016. We are currently expecting test pressings and plan to have the final LPs published in May.
No one would have expected this to become a posthumous release for Daniel, and while it is with great sadness that we have to acknowledge this fact we are proud to be releasing a piece that will contribute to his legacy and provide inspiration to others.
We miss you!
CF
A commemorative event will be held on March 21, 7pm at Gare du Nord, Basel. The event is public and Ensemble Phoenix will be playing a concert. Further details will be announced.
Below you find:
– Preview of Daniel’s side of the next Praxis record
– Videos of two performances at JOLT TERRAINS, incl. the full Cortex gig with Stelarc and a 3 minute excerpt of Buggatronic, filmed 11/12-11-2011
– Link to free download of the Praxis 48 – Cortex: Vacuum Theory via bandcamp
Low Res 027 – Adjust: Titan Remixes feat. Meander, Tarmvred, Detroit Gore Police on 12″
Fresh from the pressing plant!
300 copies, exclusive distribution by Praxis
Official release date: March 29
from today and until then only available from the praxis shop in Berlin!
LOW 027 – Adjust – Titan Remixes – 12” Vinyl
In an era where paltry software remixes are a thinly veiled attempt to retread played material as a weak appeal to launch unknown producers, or worse, a desperate plea for social followers in a bootleg capacity, it seems the critical art of the remix project is a dead and rotting half-eaten corpse on the tracks of electronic music’s underground railways.
Enter, the Titan. Only on Low Res Records.
An original track by Adjust, featuring remixes from Meander, Detroit Gore Police and Tarmvred. Each producer armed with the pedigree and capability to strip you of your fingerprints and leave nothing for dental records to trace, all with the single push of a space bar.
As your speakers begin to spew a straight up sonic seance surely to suture your future wide shut, the darkness grows colder with each revolution of the record and the needle digs deeper into your vinyl skin within. Each groove that passes, you have no choice but to submit to pure mechanical breakdown and are forced to peel your skin back and expose your very essence to the frequencies that begin to deconstruct your pithy soul. This is a total scrotal recall of Schwarzeneggerian proportions.
Leading with the Meander remix, you the listener are instantly punched in the throat and the perineum with both of Mike Tyson’s robotic iron fists at the same time. Pain, ecstasy, bewilderment and the thrill of the kill in one gigantic money shot. Little hope is left, writhing helplessly on the ground, as you stare up from the floor starstruck with delicious agony. The blood in your mouth tastes like nectar, your eardrums swollen with fear. With the value of the remix steady on the decline, this remix is measured not only in decibels, but in body counts for the coroner.
Then the Detroit Gore Police remix backs up the dump truck and drops seismic kicks and concrete bricks that grind your bones into a gelatin mâché that gets funneled into whats left of your ears, force fed by bass lines that make your eyes pop like condoms filled with phosphorescent urine from the gods, punished and pummeled, weak and forgotten, you prepare to leave the world like you entered, naked and afraid…
But before you can wither away to dust and resign from your mortal coil, the Tarmvred remix howls across the sand under the moonlight sky and circles your perimortem crawl towards death, slowly splitting your black oak, spreading your gates and turning your kingdom of suffering into a final frozen tomb of eternal sleep. A crushing whirlwind of creeping metallic devastation that pierces your innervision. No one on this planet does, like Tarmvred does.
Finally, seemingly as an act of moderated mercy, the original version of Titan by Adjust is capped off as the coup de grâce to abuse and confuse the polymatic construct of acetatic compounds found in pounds of sounds. You muster to escape by seppuku, but are only drawn to block high decibel punches in bunches with your face while your orbitals are destroyed by audibles of psychotic southside chicago acid jungle nightmares that your diminishing soul lacks in capability and composition to escape from. You never stood a chance. It’s over. The needle runs out the groove and darkness falls into a static silence as amplified paper scrapes close out your existence… you are lost and alone, on Titan.