Only 4 minutes into the 2nd side of their 1st Beat Tape, you recognize it from the first sound of that siren. You might call it ‘the hype section of Soupmask‘ (as Kuma’s remix reminds you), but St. Helens call it ‘Ground Effects‘. Souns tightens it up ’til it almost pops, and Jirku throws it through a wall of synths. Might have been a stretch to call it dub-step back when the original mix was made, but these days that label is sounding more flexible.
1. St. Helens - Ground Effects (Souns Remix)
2. St. Helens - Ground Effects (Kuma Remix)
3. St. Helens - Ground Effects (Extended Mix)
4. St. Helens - Ground Effects (Jirku Remix)
Big thanks go out to Vancouver’s hardest working, heaviest hitting dubstep producers/promoters for the remixes!
Find out what Souns is up to:
www.myspace.com/michael_red
lowindigo.blogspot.com
Find out what Kuma is up to:
www.artofbeatz.org
www.thekonspiracygroup.com/kuma.html
St. Helens
(Rob Warren and Tomas Jirku - Vancouver, Canada)
“Calling On You”
(Digital Album)
Broken techno soul. Jirku and Warren take you through funk and back…
Now available for download in glorious 256kbps mp3 format:
01. St Helens - Hastings Park
02. St Helens - Calling On You
03. St Helens - Crows Over Head
Tomas Jirku
The Atrocity Exhibition
(MP3 album)
download 256kbps audio:
http://www.riversof.com/RIVER014 - Tomas Jirku - The Atrocity Exhibition.mp3
info:
Sourced from audio experiments that started almost 11 years ago, wherein I built feedback loops through granular synthesis contraptions (sometimes without input as to be manipulating only feedback, other times inputting pop music), this album continues where I left off with my old “Never Say Never” recording. The onkyokei approach yielded more abstract, yet oddly rhythmic results, while the pop machine churned out a washy, melodic drones. Augmented with more recent rhythm and synth programming, and edited to something somewhat palatable, you’ve got what we’ve got here. We can thank J.G. Ballard for the title.
Mikrokristal
(Vilnius, Lithuania)
“Little Latent Forest Dwellers”
(CD and Digital album)
01. Jaukiai (Cosily)
02. Naktį (At Night)
03. Slepiasi (Hiding)
04. Prabudę Pilkieji Augalai (Waked Up Grey Plants)
05. Paslaptingai (Mysteriously)
06. Brekšta (Lights)
07. Pušų Garsais (Pine Sounds)
08. Rasoje (In The Dew)
09. Upės Aidai (River Sounds)
10. Dovanoja (Remissive)
11. Purslų Žaismą (Rain Spatter Joy)
12. Organiškai (Organically)
Deep, dubby electronica. Heady beats enveloped in warm synths. Adomas describes it best himself: “This album creates mood, not only with the sounds which surround us, but als in the meditative sense… that everything is one. Senses and visions expanding and melting in gently, organic space. The ambiance of the album leaves room for individual interpretation and thought, yet it is imposible not to notice the artist’s attraction to nature, and nature’s expression. Mikrokristal gives respect to nature and nature’s miracles and it is strongly reflected in this album. Experienced guide Mikrokristal takes us together to the mysteriously micro world, hinted by the tracks’ titles. Silent, empyrean mists cover forests… twist through hills and along rivers… past stones in the glades… embrace lonely trees, clear greenery, bright fields, and your shoulders. You are sinking… turning. The sky descends and melts in the fog, You can reach beads of dew in the canopy above…. tiny stones in the bottom of river tickle your foot. You are breathing deeply in the calm moment and everything suddenly melts…. You can feel all of this and much more while being at home in that chilling autumn evening, with a cup of tea and Mikrokristal’s ‘Little Latent Forest Dwellers’”.
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$15 USD including standard shipping worldwide
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Soundwarp
(Vancouver, Canada)
“Swift Shadow”
(CD and Digital Album)
01. Swifty’s Run
02. Szexy Reaktion
03. Burning Elevator
04. Carretera de la Costa
05. Green Vanishes Riverview
06. The Analog Question
07. Dancing Charlotte
08. Leaving Riverview
Mike Jevne is back to follow-up his still-hot debut album “Tryptamine”. With “Swift Shadow” we delve deeper into Mike’s analogue brain to find electro, techno and breaks, all crafted with impeccable skill. This album is sure to please classic electro heads and forward-thinking music fiends alike.
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$15 USD including standard shipping worldwide
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Vitalis Popoff
(Warsaw, Poland)
“[Lethe]“
(CD and Digital Album)
01. Tristia 1
02. Tristia 2
03. [Lethe] 1
04. [Lethe] 2
05. [Lethe] 3
06. [Lethe] 4
07. [Lethe] 5
08. [Lethe] 6
09. Somnum 1
10. Somnum 2
[Lethe] is the second part of the project trilogy presenting three aspects of life: a dream, an oblivion and death. the album’s main idea is slow, constant progress of a music theme, which leads listener to a trance or even a dream. The tracks were deliberate extended in time to make an impression that music theme keeps unchanged. The main part of the album was recorded during three 12 hours live sessions, cut into the loops and recorded live again.
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$15 USD including standard shipping worldwide
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St. Helens
(Vancouver, Canada)
“Beat Tape #1″
(CD and Digital Album)
01. Voodude
02. Soup Mask
“…Flow is central to [the] music, as is a focus on spontaneous digital music creation. Improvisation and instant gratification seem to be the key elements to this album, but that isn’t to say that this was a magical accident. With diverse influences and sounds, from experimental noises and hip-hop to electro, techno and jazz, [St. Helens] has created two tracks that show an incredible amount of preparation in terms of collecting and editing sound sources. “Soupmask” is the more dance-friendly of the songs, but both tracks also work as electronic listening music. [St. Helens] have managed to cram a lifetime of musical influences and experiences into this 38-minute epic and it shows. The cover art, a mix of computer designed and hand done printing, puts a personal touch on a genre of music that can often seem distant and corporate despite its independent, artist-run nature.”
Marinko Jareb, Exclaim! June 2007
St. Helens is Rob Warren and Tomas Jirku. Check out our artists pages for further information.
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$15 USD including standard shipping worldwide
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Soundwarp
(Vancouver, Canada)
“Tryptamine”
(CD and Digital Album)
01. DK-85
02. Infinite Zero
03. On Top Of It
04. Turning Point
05. Blue Tone
06. Surfing The Wind
07. Scanning the Din
08. Transition
09. DK-85 (Tomas Jirku Remix)
Mike Jevne’s debut album, presented under his Soundwarp alias, showcases Mike as a true virtuoso in the field of analog techno. But this album goes even further than that, and with elements of electro, breaks and Detroit, Mike crafts a style all his own. Originally from a secluded island off the west coast of Canada, Mike has travelled the world with open eyes and mind, and his positive approach comes through in this album. The depth of song writing found in each track is nearly unprecedented in the vast world of current electronic music. Soundwarp’s Trytamine recalls a long lost golden-era when producers sculpted their music to obtain greatest emotive impact, never satisfied to let a loop run for more than a few bars, let alone the entire length of a composition. And with this album Mike Jevne gives us hope that we can find ourselves in such a time again, when producers don’t underestimate the intelligence of their audience. Visit the ARTISTS page for more information about this talented new star, and stay tuned to our label to keep pace with our ever evolving world of independent electronic music.
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A limited edition of 75 numbered CDs with hand-made packaging
$15 USD including standard shipping worldwide
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Naw
(Toronto, Canada)
“Terrain Vague”
(CD and Digital Album)
01. 4 by 6
02. glass bell bottom pipeline
03. birch bark ceiling wax
04. 90 degree decent
05. sprawl
06. seismic side walk activity
07. birch bark (tomas jirku remix)
Rivers of Recordings is proud to announce the release of the label’s first album, an album rather appropriately from Neil Wiernik. Neil and Tomas Jirku first met in Toronto nearly seven years ago when they performed on the same bill at what was Jirku’s debut performance. The two easily found affinity in their sounds and at the time they even boldly determined that techno music need not be faster than 120 beats per minute. Despite deviations from this through the course of those years we find ourselves with an album which indeed rarely exceeds this pre-determined mark. The pace of the music at this tempo aided by the music’s structure seems to dissolve the listener’s reference to time in an almost disorientating effect. As the music progresses one can hear the effects of the creator’s hand fine-tuning the elements of the composition in search of balance. Created as an event to occur only at the time of it’s performance, this album, thankfully recorded by Neil, gives us a look into the artist’s process. The rawness of the result is a relief from the overproduced, sterile precision of computer music that is overabundant these days. The abstention from addition post-production beyond Neil’s own self-determined processing allows us to hear the music as the creator intended, because there is no purpose in allowing the creators work to be altered in some misguided goal. The artwork for the album, a collaboration between Tomas Jirku and Greg Smith, brings together multiple printing techniques in a resourceful and unique package. Greg is an architect based between Toronto and Los Angeles who, along with Neil, co-curates the Vague Terrain online digital arts quarterly.
GET THE CD ALBUM EDITION DIRECTLY FROM US
A limited edition of 75 numbered CDs with hand-made packaging
$15 USD including standard shipping worldwide
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