Hecate: Hate Cats EP

By metatron | Published: July 12, 2012

Praxis 32
Hecate
Hate Cats EP
12″ – 1998

Praxis 32 was the first release by Hecate on Praxis.
The fierce breakcore of her solo-debut was to be followed up by her albums, The Magick of Female Ejaculation and Ascension Chamber (both released on double vinyl and CD, and in collaboration with her own Zhark International label.
One track – “Wanna Try Me?” co-produced by Christoph Fringeli.

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Cortex: Vacuum Theory

By metatron | Published: July 12, 2012

Praxis 48
Cortex
Vacuum Theory
12″ – 2011

A momentous, heavy, noisy and radical release by former 16-17 members Alex Buess and Daniel Buess.

CORTEX appeared in 1998 out of Alex and Daniel Buess musical collaborations.
They were both musicians of the legendary free-noise-core combo 16-17 and
also worked together since many years realizing Alex percussion-compositions. After the 16-17 Mechanophobia-Tour in 1998 where also Daniel played drums, Buess&Buess started to work on CORTEX, a melting point and mutual fruitful influence of physical/human-and virtual/machine Energy. A hormonal control center. Organic and magnetic skins, air and metal. Musical intensity, pulsating, floating, polystructural multilayers and their orchestral sounds combine to a soundtrack with a powerful mix of
Bass, harsh Sax-attacs and intense drum-beats, a wall of sound with extreme frequencies and heavy beats.

The sound-sources which were used for the creation of Vacuum Theory were taken mainly from our early live-performances. Machinic Phylum as a machinic language, roots of the machines. The non existing Vacuum Theory refers to the physical law of vacuum, to an airless void and to the high explosive energy of usu as an oppositional power to the vacuum. Cortex appeared live in several different instrumental forms. As an electronic based, soundystem-like duo, as well as a band with live played instruments,
sometimes also with guest-musicians. The present tracks come from the soundsystem-era when Cortex-performances mostly had a conceptual basis, occasionally pre-produced soundtracks were used to get mixed live as some kind of a mobile studio.

  • BUY this record from the Praxis online shop
  • Discogs page for Praxis 48 by Cortex
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Bulkrate: In the Temple of the Serpent

By metatron | Published: July 12, 2012

Praxis 49
Bulkrate
In The Temple Of The Serpent
2012

300 copies pressed in 2012

Bulkrate presents his vinyl debut after some download releases on Dark Winter and Zhark International. Dark and haunting ambience and breaks on five tracks.

Review by Kovert in Datacide Twelve (2012):
‘A first commit to vinyl from Bulkrate, and a five track release that wouldn’t sound out of place in the Zhark catalogue. In fact Bulkrate already released a set of mp3s as one of the last outputs from Zhark. This release has a less hectic feel than the previous digital releases, but is still dark and cinematic broken core with an occult edge.’

Bulkrate-in the temple of the serpent – by Bulkrate

The name of the record is inspired by The Mesoamerican Temple of the Feathered Serpent, located at the southern end of the Avenue of the Dead.
This structure is notable partly due to the discovery in the 1980s of more than a hundred possibly-sacrificial victims found buried beneath the structure.

I used on the record a combination of software and hardware synths and modules.

Gromlon – The intro is an improvised piece played on a cs1x synth. I used to start my shows with this, some time ago. It represents going into the other world, an occult dream world just in between dimensions where freaks like me belong (stopped using it as intro this year [2012]) fading out in the first track of the 12” like I used to do at live gigs.

Those Soulless Freaks and the Mad Men – a nice horror piece, the main drum part is played on a cheap midi trigger keyboard connected to a drum module and later edited in a sequencer program on PC.
Lead part played on a hardware synth.
Its about sickness and evil pleasure in hurting others to see what happens and how long you can take abuse mentally and fiscally. Also its about manipulation, so its more or less about power.

Aiwass – Some parts of the book of the law chanced my life, being your own god, going for what you want and working hard to get it. Failing is no longer an option, so this is Aiwass to celebrate this.

Tepe Gawra – Tepe Gawra is the name of an ancient Mesopotamian settlement near the site of Nineveh.
It started out with that I wanted to make a track as an ode to an artist i really liked at that time, but it turned out different and soon I turned away from the idea. Making it about the worship and murder rituals in Mesopotamian culture.

Just a Dead Man– It says very simple, you may think you can make a difference but mainly your just a loser heading for your death.

Consumed by Fire – Is about sin and war between good and bad in the traditional way that the Christians believe it. And about me taking revenge by killing them all. There have been people manipulating other people for so long, keeping them hostage, keeping them from there own real will.
I would say, feed them to the lions, it worked the first time, hehehehheh.

Discogs page for Praxis 49

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Electric Kettle: News from Berlin

By metatron | Published: July 12, 2012

Praxis 50
Electric Kettle
News from Berlin

Four slamming tracks full of details and depth by Electric Kettle from 2012.

‘Powerful broken riddims that for me work best on the track co-produced with GVK: a bruising broken core cut that re-imagines stepping rhythms into powerful, unsetting constructions, overlaying them with a cut and paste approach with snatches of vocals, noise and other audio strangeness.’ (Kovert in Datacide 12)

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Crisis Theory

By metatron | Published: July 12, 2012

Praxis 37
Crisis Theory
2002

Cut by Yann Dub at Reverse Prime Cut in Paris and pressed at MPO in an edition of 1000 in 2002.

Crisis Theory was the collaboration of Hecate and Christoph Fringeli, and this 4-track EP contains tracks written between 1999 and 2001, released the following year. Showing the other side of the coin of their Sub/Version record (Luxuria/Avaritia, Sub/Version 005), presenting more abstract and psychedelic breaks and noise with influences ranging from Hitchcock sountracks to metal bashing industrial music fused in their own aesthetic of dark breaks.

DISCOGS

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Low Entropy: Anarcho-Psychotic EP

By metatron | Published: July 12, 2012

Praxis 36
Low Entropy
Anarcho-Psychotic EP
12″ – 2002

Cut by Yann Dub at Reverse Prime Cut in Paris
1000 copies pressed at MPO France in 2002.

Low Entropy’s 4-track EP combines hard politically charged breakcore, broken beats and noise and a passionate intensity. Anarcho-Psychotic was one of his first releases before he took a hiatus for several years; since re-emerging around 2010 he has released an abundance of mostly digital releases.

Original label info from 2002, when this excellent record was first released: Hailing from Hamburg, Low Entropy is one of the most exciting young producers of phuturistic breaks and hardcore. A riot of noise and beats in shimmering clear production, Anarcho-Psychotic is aptly named, but nevertheless also features moments of tranquility.

Reviews

Recycle Your Ears writes: “This is the second time I am exposed to music by LOW ENTROPY, after the split 12inch that this Hamburg based musician was sharing with CDATAKILL. LOW ENTROPY has both sides of the record to express himself this time, with this new 12inch that fits perfectly in the rest of the Praxis discography. Past the colorful sleeve, what you get is gritty, sometimes furious and quite noise breakcore. Things are quite clear with ‘The Truth’, which might be my favorite track from this record: meshed rhythms, broken patterns, high pitch noise and an ever changing tracks full of little details form a strong and very tasty dancefloor piece. The following ‘The Agony Of Every Day Life’ is less hectic and heavy, juggling with a deep bass drum and a myriad of sci-fi effects. Well articulated witht the previous track, this one adds to the dark and broken side of LOW ENTROPY, in a relatively typical breakcore way. On the second side, ‘Symphony Of Creative Destruction’ is a track that reminds me a lot of SOMATIC RESPONSES, for it has the same tones and lines. A rather gritty beat gives the pace, but the hear of this piece is the nice, tweaked and oh-so Somatician tune. Very nice, if not really original, this is a track that has its momentum when the beats kick in. The other track on the second side is harder in sounds, but shorter. It is far noisier and its beats are not as heavy, being extremely scrapping and distorted, ending in a nice and ear blasting way to conclude this ep. All in all, this is a must for every DJ, at least for the first tracks on each side. Then, the Praxis freaks out there will probably not be able to resist the first release of this label in a little while. And finally, this is a well done, massive but varied enough break record, so any enthusiast of the genre should probably check it out. ” (quoted in digitalworldnet catalog 2003)

  • Buy a copy of the original vinyl HERE
  • Praxis 36 on Discogs

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Nomex: Trocante Gramofony E.P.

By metatron | Published: July 12, 2012

Praxis 33
Nomex
Trocante Gramofony E.P.
12″ – 1999

Mastered by Shane at Tape2Tape (later Finyltweek),

500 copies in late 1999.

100 copies re-press on black vinyl released May 10, 2021.

The A-side is a long version of Fire is the Centre, while the B-side consists in the incisive Life Destroy, the speaker shredding No-Step 2000 and shorter pieces and loops. Nomex mentioned several times that he thought of this as his best work. After being out of print for many years, we are releasing a vinyl re-press from the original plates in a limited edition of 100 copies in May 2021.

On vinyl the A-side ends with ‘Nett of Sound’, a fragment of noise, catapulting the needle on to the label in many cases.

The flip side starts with ‘Life Destroy’: Hypnosis recordings, test tones, waves of noise and a poem by William Blake are just some of the elements of this haunting soundscape.

O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

The Sick Rose by William Blake

‘Stay Down’ and ‘Silence in the Burrow’ are again fragments, one ending in a locked groove, between the two “main tracks”, the second and final one being ‘No-Step 2000’, a speaker shredding adventure concluding the record.

Trocante Gramofony E.P. was originally released at the end of 1999.

Ever since this period we had the idea to release more material on Praxis.
When he played a Praxis/ Cagliostro party at Knochenbox in Berlin in 2010 this plan was invigorated.
We’ll be very happy to release this material in the near future.

Label scan of the A-side of the original 1999 pressing of Trocante Gramofony E.P. (Praxis 33)
Label scan of the B-side of the original 1999 pressing of Trocante Gramofony E.P. (Praxis 33)
Scan of the A-side label of the 2021 re-press of Traconte Gramofony E.P.
Scan of the B-side label of the 2021 re-press of Traconte Gramofony E.P.
Praxis-33_Press-Release_DIGITALDownload

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16-17: Mechanophobia

By metatron | Published: July 12, 2012

Praxis 31
16-17
Mechanophobia
12″ – 1999

700 copies.

16-17 started in 1983 in Basel, Switzerland as a three-piece “industrial punk jazz” outfit with Alex Buess, Markus Kneubühler and Knut Remond. They released a number of cassettes, before debuting with their self titled album in 1987. Two years later this was followed up by “When All Else Fails”, an LP of treated live recordings. Around the same time there was a proliferation of side-projects and Alex Buess became the sound mixer/co-producer of the Vision material and it wasn’t till 1994 that the band came out with a new album. “Gyatso” was produced by Kevin Martin (Techno Animal, The Bug) and released on his Pathological label (re-released in 2008 on Savageland) and, besides Martin, featured G.Green (Godflesh) as a guest musician. Buess also collaborated with Martin on the ICE project which also included Justin Broadrick (J.K.Flesh), the other half of Techno Animal.
‘Gyatso’ was the last album as a full band by 16-17 (as well as the last release on Pathological), but there were to be two more significant releases. The first was a direct outgrowth of the collaborations with Kevin Martin: Human Distortion, released on Digital Hardcore Recordings. The lineup here is listed as Alex Buess, Damien Bennett and Michael Wertmüller, production credits go to The Bug.
The second was Mechanophobia on Praxis.
Mechanophobia presented two “Sound System Mixes”. Two incredibly dynamic, morphing tracks, produced by Alex Buess and Roger Graf, and featuring on drums Daniel Buess. Around the same time the two Buess started the Cortex project and would together re-appear on Praxis with Vacuum Theory (Praxis 48) in 2011 and “Skin Craft” (Praxis 55) in 2016.

More recently, in the praxis_digital series, there was a live album by Cortex feat. Stelarc titled Beware of the Arm of Flesh (praxis_digital_01000, 2022). This album contains radically different live versions of both tracks on Mechanophobia!

16-17 returned to Praxis with both a brand new 12″, The Pandemic Wargames Remixes, in 2020 (Praxis 58) and a long awaited vinyl edition of the classic 1994 album Gyatso in 2021 (Praxis 59). The latter was a co-release with Alex Buess’ newly (re-)formed Skin and Speech label.

Dave Howell in THE WIRE #190/191 New Year 2000

16-17: Mechanophobia on the Noise & Politics channel on YouTube
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Bambule: Vertical Invasion

By metatron | Published: July 12, 2012

Artist: Bambule
Title: Vertical Invasion
Vinyl released 1999
Press run: 500-700 (I can’t remember…)

Side A
– Vertical Invasion (6:58)
– Joy Is The Aim (3:22)

Side B
– Tripped Wire (Photon Emissions Rmx) (5:46)
– Third Force (Photon Emissions Rmx) (06:24)

Digital release 28-12-2012
Additionally featuring the original mixes of Thirdforce and Trip Wired (see bandcamp player below)

Bambule is a project of Gordon Sharp, better known as Cindytalk, which combines beat oriented material with noise and ambient soundscapes. Named after Ulrike Meinhof’s TV play which is a critique of the borstal system, urging female revolt and class warfare. Two releases on Praxis appeared in 1996 and 1999. The first was a double album collaboration with Cunning which has become one of the more sought after records on Praxis (Praxis 19), the second featured one side by Bambule with intense soundscapes and the other side with two remixes of (so far unreleased) tracks by Photon Emissions, a.k.a. Somatic Responses (Praxis 29).


REVIEWS

“This Praxis 12inch is a strange thing. I do not know anything about BAMBULE (after publishing this review, I got the information that it’s in fact a side-project of CINDYTALK), but here is a pretty diverse and varied. On the A side, ‘Vertical invasion’ is a slow track of muffled noise, with some cut off effect being applied to a low and rumbling wave of distortion. Quite dense and with some good heavy tones, but maybe ending before having really gotten somewhere. The following ‘Joy Is The Aim’ is less noisy, and relies on some edited voice samples, a repeated high pitched tone and some play of low drums and basses. This track is quite experimental and works well, in an atmospheric kind of way. Heavy in its texture but light and interesting in its sound, this is a nice unidentified audio object. The B side is totally different, with two tracks remixed by PHOTONS EMISSIONS (aka SOMATIC RESPONSES). I don’t know the original ones, but these sounds like very good SOMATIC RESPONSES material. Maybe a bit broken and less distorted than the usual SOMATIC RESPONSES stuff, the mark of the two Welsh brothers is easy to spot on this two rhythmic, heavy and percussive tracks. ‘Thirdforce’ is a fast and broken track with a surprisingly clear but nice melodic line. ‘Tripped Wire’ is a really impressive and extremely good slow paced track with very interesting dark rusty sounds and a strangely menacing thing that sounds like a voice. Very good job. I would recommend this 12″ for the PHOTONS EMISSIONS remixes alone. The other side, presenting BAMBULE alone, is nice but maybe too short to get an idea of where this artist wants to go. Anyway, I’ll keep on playing the B side on repeat.” (review by Recycle Your Ears).

BACKGROUND

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The Wirebug: The Uncontrollable H Disease

By metatron | Published: July 12, 2012

The Wirebug
The Uncontrollable H Disease
Praxis 28

1000 copies (?)

A 4-tracker by The Wirebug aka Dan Hekate of the Hekate Sound System.

Praxis and Hekate first joined forces around 1996 at Teknivals and free parties in London. It became lasting collaboration of which this record is only one example (others are Dan’s texts in datacide and dybbuk’s covers for the same magazine, amongst many other interactions).

Discogs

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