Category: Releases

Tendryl – Knaves

Posted on by Oliver

“Rowing through Styx, flowers, and flies too,
I hear an echo, a wet hum.
A wincing moment, slow drip of time.
Words lost aren’t worth mincing.
My body’s unglued.”

‘Knaves’, the debut EP from NYC-based Tendryl, emerges at a post-truth moment in which deceit is routinely deployed as a tool for exploitation and survival. With an interest in critical theory and ecology, Tendryl’s work is informed by the fragile power of contemporary social systems and methods of constructing spheres of resistance within them. ‘Knaves’ merges cutting rhythms and deep fried sampling with elements drawn from a wide gamut of electronic production to incant a playful, spiraling visage.

‘Wot’ opens the EP, whipping into a frenzy of dread and exhilaration with crusty impacts and impish Roland D50 patches. ‘Hall Of Mirrors’ manoeuvres deeper into Tendryl’s harlequin aesthetic with woozy vocal growls refracting across acrobatic leads and skittering drums. ‘Dissolve,’ a frenetic collaboration with fellow producer Ubu Boi, brings ‘Knaves’ to a ritualistic fever pitch with relentless 5/4 kicks and frosty sound design. Warped Celtic vocal samples heighten the track’s otherworldly nature. EP closer ‘Unglued’, written in the fallout from the 2016 USA election, is ‘Knaves’ most poetic and sincere moment, attempting to establish a grounded and protected space within a liquefied sonic landscape.

Artwork by Laila Blebleble and Oliver van der Lugt

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS13
RELEASE DATE: Friday 30 November 2018

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SCAM – Vibrio

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‘Vibrio’, the debut release from Sydney producer SCAM, offers four love songs written for bacteria and molecules. Examining geosmin, luciferase, slime mold, mushrooms, THC, morphine and other companions, the EP zooms in on human encounters with our microscopic kin on Earth to explore the emotional terrain of inter-species and inter-chemical intimacies.
Sonically, ‘Vibrio’ injects OTT emotionality and TMI sentimentality into robust and playful rhythms. On EP opener ‘Host’ a floaty late-noughties R’n’B lead winds around a TED Talk snippet declaring our collective status as microbial hosts. ‘Crumb’, made with producer and vocalist Seayams, contrasts the symbiotic beauty of bioluminescence with the biopolitical strategies of anti-injection blue light. Another Seayams collaboration – ‘Tetra Crush’ – narrativises the search for water and longing for rain so fundamental to our species as assisted by our long-term crush, geosmin (the bacteria that contributes to petrichor: the smell of rain). ‘QQ’ closes with bouncy drums over looping samples from a recording of the bio-electrical activity of slime molds — essentially an invitation for slime molds to come out on Friday.
A rose-tinted trip through oft-overlooked intimacies between us and our non-human collaborators in Life, ‘Vibrio’ suggests that these entanglements are every bit as flirtatious, devotional and co-dependent as our human relationships.

The EP was written and recorded on Darug and Gadigal land where sovereignty was never ceded.

Cover by Oliver van der Lugt.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS12
RELEASE DATE: Friday 12 October 2018

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Oroboro – Harkonnen

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Three serpentine instrumentals by Oroboro comprise DECISIONS11. The Italian producer, who also soundtracks experimental theatre in his home town of Cesena, crafts epically evolving tracks shimmering with microscopic detail and emotional texture.
Heart Valve begins the EP, enveloping the listener in a kaleidoscope of surging melody and ectopic rhythms. Life Drain locks into a robust 2-step groove and sidewinds through jagged peaks and windswept breakdowns via a novel arrangement. The final track catches Oroboro in a stormy mood as the searching trap-like lurch of Armed Concrete culminates in an audaciously broken crescendo.
Referencing the military-industrialist ruling family of Giedi Prime from the Science Fiction epic Dune, Harkonnen meditates on a planet “completely overthrown by human desires, waiting for the dominant species to die in order to slowly start to bloom again”. Brief but vivid, the auditory palinopsia of Harkonnen burns on long after it ends.

Cover by Oliver van der Lugt.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS11
RELEASE DATE: Friday 13 July 2018

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Air Max ’97 – Nacre

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Rugged and lustrous, Nacre is Air Max ‘97’s first full-length release. Written between Melbourne and Berlin and mixed in Mexico City, the album bears traces of fleeting yet profound geographic and emotional immersions. Air Max ‘97’s signature baroque momentum is suffused anew with pungent and labile tonal atmospheres, through which organic sonic events and incomprehensibly abstracted vocals wreathe. The record’s disposition spans the darkly playful arpeggios of Veneer to the dirge-like Kermes and paranoiac Karyon. Fiendishly twisting tracks are interspersed with more tender moments such as Queriensteiger, Nacre and Gousse (formerly released on Stoscha’s 2017 Klink compilation). The totality is uncompromising and affective, yielding a broader spectrum of Air Max ‘97 sonics than ever before.

Cover photography by Elliott Lauren, design by Oliver van der Lugt.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS10
RELEASE DATE: Friday 1 June 2018

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Chunyin – 偽承諾 Pseudo Promitto

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Responding to illegitimate and pirated artistic forms which saturate our contemporary media environment, Sydney-based producer Chunyin has created four bristling club tracks to contribute to the din.
Sickly text-to-speech samples of facebook notification settings on Look Back On This highlight the disturbing politics of digital memories. Adidos is a footwork-inspired jingle for counterfeit sportswear, while Terms and Tyrian access languages of global power and control. With a nihilistic edge, Pseudo Promitto poses an equivalence between the disintegration of semantics in techno (losing yourself in the music) and globalisation (losing yourself in late capitalism). The simultaneously dystopian, libidinous and shiny EP (echoed by Wu Mei Chi’s dazzling cover photograph) indulges in the false promises of consumer culture. May the lo-fi rips and dodgy phone videos uploaded onto YouTube/WeChat ensue…

Cover image by Wu Mei Chi, design by Oliver van der Lugt.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS9
RELEASE DATE: Friday 13 April 2018

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DJ Plead – Get In Circle

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DJ Plead delivers a unique set of deep and frenetic dance floor tools for his DECISIONS debut. Sumptuous percussion drawn from Plead’s Lebanese background is masterfully arranged to propel the listener into deeply mesmeric rhythmic zones. Equally hypnotic are the vocal and synth loops gleefully entwined throughout the EP, with vibes ranging from slinkily tense (DVE; Get In Circle) to exuberant (Giz) to downright dubby (Lee’s Shuffle). The EP title simultaneously references dancing circles at Lebanese weddings and the anthemic samples of footwork producers such as DJ Roc. Get In Circle is the first EP length release from Melbourne’s DJ Plead, who has been hiding in plain sight as one third of BV and half of Poison. Play loud; get in circle.

Artwork photography by Jarred Beeler, edited by Oliver van der Lugt.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS8
RELEASE DATE: Friday 2 March 2018

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Jikuroux – Cradle Bay

Posted on by Oliver

Sydney based producer and DJ Jikuroux returns to DECISIONS with four lucid tracks exhibiting her signature combo of glittering melodies and crushing drums. Citing a “reimagining [of] anxiety as something beautiful” as the core concept of the EP, Jikuroux forges a complex emotional journey in which dialectics of soft/hard, dark/light, clear/murky are repeatedly blurred and inverted.
‘Cracked’ opens the EP, sending plucked leads tumbling over a volcanic topography of bass and pads. Broody chords and a tough, low slung rhythm drive the anthemic ‘Cradle Bay’, while ‘Themed Break’ sees Jikuroux weave an elastic array of rhythmic and harmonic movements around a single recursive rnb “ooh”. ‘Hollow Grin’ closes the EP with flutes and bells illuminating a bilious fog replete with ghoulish hisses and growling bass.
Terse, lithe and ornately HD, Cradle Bay is built to gently devastate both inside and outside the club. It drops on Friday 16 June (the morning after DECISIONS’ showcase with Polymorphism at Berghain, Berlin).

Mastered by Sam John at Precise. Artwork photography by Jarred Beeler, edited by Oliver van der Lugt.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS7
RELEASE DATE: Friday 16 June 2017

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Air Max ’97 – Vessel

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Form ambushes function as Air Max ‘97 disappears deeper into spacetime on new EP Vessel. Five tracks ouroborically whip, stutter and mutate their way through liminal dancefloor territory. Metabolising snippets of speech, gasps and hand claps alongside intricate percussion and guttural synth work, Air Max ‘97 further hones and obfuscates his unique vision for the club.

Mastered by Sam John at Precise. Cover artwork by Kim Laughton

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS6
RELEASE DATE: Friday 28 April 2016

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Avbvn – Self/Similarity

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Avbvrn is a producer, composer and DJ born in California and based in Frankfurt. Combining a history of digital production with study of composition under Claus Kühnl at the Hoch Conservatory, Avbvrn’s music is situated at the intersection between experimental, club and contemporary classical music.
Avbvrn is a formidable reworker—his output thus far includes several uniquely twisted edits and remixes. On Self/Similarity he turns his editing tools on himself: five prototype tracks were written as source material and then sampled and processed into five new tracks. The EP’s compositional self-reflexivity exudes solipsistic sonics rich with oddly stretched textures and highly sculpted artefacts. As a fully formed second iteration of a previous body of original work, the EP implies infinite further iterations…
Monochromatic, otherwordly and at times claustrauphobic, Self/Similarity is a compelling insight into Avbvrn’s conceptually inquisitive and singularly dank music practice.

Mastered by Sam John at Precise. Cover artwork by Justus Gelberg.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS5
RELEASE DATE: Friday 10 March 2016

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Care Package

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Care Package – sent with love from Australia’s club underground. Delivered in partnership with EVE, LOW TON and Club Sync.

Tracklist:
Jikuroux – Teardrop [Excerpt from Erotic Gestures of Sound]
DJ MacKeeper – Pipe PSI
Snoop Dogg x New Boyz – Cricket Drop (Strict Face Blend)
DJ Shoe – Poing
Empire – Remember My Name (SCAM RFX)
Jeremih – Don’t Hurt Me (Atro Fukup)
Jikuroux x Abra – Slow Pressure Big Boi (Cache One Blend)
Air Max ’97 :’) Sia – HPE Heart
Justin Bieber x Underworld x NA – Bieber Born Slippy & Trembling (C-Section by Aspa)
waterhouse – 0000000
Tinashe – Ride of Your Life (Passion Boy & Bby Angel Edit)
Air max ’97 – Inside Outside (Avbvrn Remix)
WA?STE x Sonny Digital – 50 On My Eternal Ocean

RELEASE DATE: Tuesday 8 November 2016

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Jikuroux – Ruptured Pulse EP

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Jikuroux’s Ruptured Pulse EP is a lustrous wrecking ball. Shimmering melodies ride heaving, clattering drums as the record careers through three breathtaking cuts.
An Elysian voice floats amid cavernous crashes and blistering synth licks as Only U begins. At the vertiginous drop an icy melody grows fractal-like over pummeling kicks and intricate percussion.
The EP’s title track follows, beginning with pneumatic percussion and hypnotic synths before dropping into a miasma of beats. The track twists and lashes, mutating through a labyrinth of rhythms until a haunting melodic refrain returns to guide the listener out.
Slow Pressure slams in to close the EP, bubbling and gasping into a taut rhythmic machine. A harried Britney expresses her need for time, space and love before the track culminates in a dizzying whorl of drum rolls.
Ruptured Pulse finally debuts the tight and fiercely singular production practice Jikuroux has been developing from her Sydney home.

Mastered by Sam John at Precise. Cover artwork by Jikuroux and Celia Bradshaw.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS4
RELEASE DATE: Friday 30 September 2016

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Air Max ’97 – HPE EP

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Air Max ’97 goes iconoclastic on HPE, his first EP-length release for DECISIONS.
The title track is a 3M streaked dumb/smart twister, propelling forward in alarming bursts of barely-sensical rhythm punctuated by stark silence. It starts half a bar early or late as per your preference.
Murky heater ‘Swelter’ follows. Sticky bass beats below vaults of pungent atmosphere and blistered percussion before a succession of serrated synths take the track to speedy, paranoid place.
‘Thrall’ pummels, kick drum and sub hurtling through a pre-individual cloud of chewed and splintered chatter. The track decays as it deepens, constantly inferring and deferring intensity. You will emerge exfoliated, glistening.
EP closer ‘Inside Outside’ sounds like something writhing around in a flooded basement.
Use safely but not sensibly to derange the dancefloor.

Mastered by Sam John at Precise. Cover artwork by Air Max ’97.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS3
RELEASE DATE: Friday 17 June 2016

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waterhouse – Empty Gallery EP

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‘Empty Gallery’ spans 3 years of waterhouse productions (2013-2015) charting a sonic emergence suffused with spatial, textural and emotional complexity, as much primed for deep listening at home as it is for the more intimately challenging moments of a DJ set. waterhouse has been making waves with her intense live performances, visceral DJ sets and her growing catalogue of releases and mixfiles. Empty Gallery EP was her debut release.

Mastered by Sam John at Precise, pressed on 140 gram vinyl and presented in a printed cardboard sleeve. Cover artwork by waterhouse.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS2
RELEASE DATE: Friday 11 March 2016

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Air Max ’97 – Core Work / Expenditure

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Air Max ‘97 breaks ground on DECISIONS with two darkly functional dance floor cuts.

A side ‘Core Work’ is an oblique polyrhythmic affair aimed to enrapture the body and mind. A nearly 4/4 kick pulses under viscous bell loops and bursts of syncopated clicks and crashes. The result is playful and bewitching, drawing the listener/dancer through a series of cascading, shifting grooves. Watch the Core Work video.

B side ‘Expenditure’ is a low-slung extra terrestrial machine. Described by Ben UFO as ‘seriously twisted’, the track sets keenly textured bass in elliptical orbit around arpeggiated melodies and sharply honed percussion.

Mastered by Sam John at Precise, pressed on 140 gram vinyl and presented in a printed cardboard sleeve. Cover artwork by Timothy István Erdei.

CATALOGUE #: DECISIONS1
RELEASE DATE: Friday 23 October 2015

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