MURDER 03 | Latest Various Artist Release
Murder Records is a Tbilisi-based imprint for electronic music. The label was founded by David Japaridze, who produces music under the moniker Puritan and also appears on the compilation himself.
For fans of hard techno, aesthetes, and electronic enthusiasts of a post-punk inclination, you’ll definitely want to check out the third in line of this stellar series. Japaridze brings together top talent from diverse micro-genres, while masterfully creating a daring sound and clever vibe of its own. A successful vision brought to life, this label is one to watch.
The album grabs from the opening with a dazzling track, “Dressed to Kill,” from personal favorite, Soft Crash. The track is as stylish and gripping as its namesake. Soft Crash is the collaboration of Berghain & Khidi Resident, Phase Fatale and Pablo Bozzi of Imperial Black Unit. In any of their several musical projects, these two do not disappoint and have yet to do so here. Twinkling and dangerous, aloft with nighttime energy, their trademarked sound is reminiscent of an EBM disco, while being far too soaring to ever sound literal. Leather-gloved giallo excerpts and images from Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace play silently in the back of imagination.
Rising out of LA, Silent Servant, picks up the pace with the next track. If the previous number was a dark dance club, this one is a glancing-over-your-shoulder walk down an alley. It’s intense without relying on being heavy. Intelligent and calculating. Careful, but relentless. This track feels immensely contemporary in its sound design. Silent Servant toes prolific ground between techno and a futuristic, mutant industrial. Something is coming, growing, or already right behind you. A bottled charge. Its conceptual inventiveness almost makes it feel closer to art or performance, but I’m not complaining.
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With a flawless merger and departure, Puritan leans into the tempo previously set, but transports us to new realms. We move inward. A rumination, but not a respite. This track is the subconscious mind pouring over something impactful that’s transpired–coming to grips with what’s happened and what’s to be. Melodious synths creep in, pushing and expanding, while the beat and bottom core keeps us tethered–giving us great tension beneath a floating upper layer.
Sounds pull and shift as we wonder where it will go and bears a narrative aspect in this respect. There are heightened moments, but the track stays within its soothing sonic vein. Expansive and meditative. This combined with an organic quality almost makes us feel that we were witnessing passages of a dream. You get the sense that Puritan is trying to see how far himself in interesting parallel to the track.
New York-based DJ, Volvox, delivers a brilliantly transportive number with “Visions.” It balances being acidic and bright, with otherworldly haze. Her looped material almost sounds like a distorted call to prayer. Inwardly circulating, this track settles into a rhythmic groove that feels like something that would have emanated out of a Byzantine open-air venue. Its softness does not diminish its pull. Like a siren lure, tranced calls reach out to lull you further and further into trance in this dizzyingly hypnotic track.
UNRELEASED TRACKS
You can preview the yet released tracks here, and I have to say I’m particularly excited to hear the full lengths of both of these. It could just be the intrigue that’s getting me, but as much as I enjoy the previous artists, these samples sound absolutely captivating. Restive Plaggona hails from Greece, and OTHR is a Georgian-based producer and KHIDI resident. “How Deep The Rabbit Hole Goes” by Restive Plaggona is giving H.R. Geiger goes techno in a more exciting and unique way than I could have imagined; “Severed,” a hauntingly sleek, percussive dark fantasy.
PHYSICAL RELEASE
The album, still available for preorder, releases October 22, 2021. The vinyl comes in standard black and a beautiful marbled hyacinth, additionally accompanied by poster.
Murder is more than just a label. It’s a collective between like-minded musicians, event producers, and artists. Each release artwork has been designed by a different artist, with the latest being created by ZIMMERIT.
Previous releases include tracks from JK Flesh, Codex Empire, Crystal Geometry, BMSK, Fractions & Zanias, Alessandro Adriani, Years of Denial, Body Beat Ritual, and Vulkanski.
Give these earlier EBM tracks a listen-
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